Δ  5 desaturase and its use in making polyunsaturated fatty acids

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a Δ5 desaturase, which has the ability to convert dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA; 20:3 ω-6) to arachidonic acid (ARA; 20:4 ω-6) and/or eicosatetraenoic acid (ETA; 20:4 ω-3) to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5 ω-3). Isolated nucleic acid fragments and recombinant constructs comprising such fragments encoding Δ5 desaturase along with a method of making long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) using this Δ5 desaturase in oleaginous yeast are disclosed.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/801,172, filed May 17, 2006.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention is in the field of biotechnology. More specifically, this invention pertains to the identification of nucleic acid fragments encoding a delta 5 fatty acid desaturase enzyme and the use of this desaturase in making long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The importance of PUFAs is undisputed. For example, certain PUFAs are important biological components of healthy cells and are recognized as: “essential” fatty acids that cannot be synthesized de novo in mammals and instead must be obtained either in the diet or derived by further desaturation and elongation of linoleic acid (LA; 18:2 ω-6) or α-linolenic acid (ALA; 18:3 ω-3); constituents of plasma membranes of cells, where they may be found in such forms as phospholipids or triacylglycerols; necessary for proper development (particularly in the developing infant brain) and for tissue formation and repair; and, precursors to several biologically active eicosanoids of importance in mammals (e.g., prostacyclins, eicosanoids, leukotrienes, prostaglandins). Additionally, a high intake of long-chain ω-3 PUFAs produces cardiovascular protective effects (Dyerberg, J. et al., Amer. J. Clin. Nutr., 28:958-966 (1975); Dyerberg, J. et al., Lancet, 2(8081):117-119 (Jul. 15, 1978); Shimokawa, H., World Rev. Nutr. Diet, 88:100-108 (2001); von Schacky, C. and Dyerberg, J., World Rev. Nutr. Diet, 88:90-99 (2001)). And, numerous other studies document wide-ranging health benefits conferred by administration of ω-3 and/or ω-6 PUFAs against a variety of symptoms and diseases (e.g., asthma, psoriasis, eczema, diabetes, cancer).

A variety of different hosts including plants, algae, fungi and yeast are being investigated as means for commercial PUFA production. Genetic engineering has demonstrated that the natural abilities of some hosts (even those natively limited to LA and ALA fatty acid production) can be substantially altered to result in high-level production of various long-chain ω-3/ω-6 PUFAs. Whether this is the result of natural abilities or recombinant technology, production of arachidonic acid (ARA; 20:4 ω-6), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5 ω-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6 ω-3) may all require expression of a Δ5 desaturase.

Most Δ5 desaturase enzymes identified so far have the primary ability to convert dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA; 20:3 ω-6) to ARA, with secondary activity in converting eicosatetraenoic acid (ETA; 20:4 ω-3) to EPA (where DHA is subsequently synthesized from EPA following reaction with an additional C_(20/22) elongase and a Δ4 desaturase). The Δ5 desaturase has a role in both the Δ6 desaturase/Δ6 elongase pathway (which is predominantly found in algae, mosses, fungi, nematodes and humans and which is characterized by the production of γ-linoleic acid (GLA; 18:3 ω-6) and/or stearidonic acid (STA; 18:4 ω-3)) and the Δ9 elongase/Δ8 desaturase pathway (which operates in some organisms, such as euglenoid species and which is characterized by the production of eicosadienoic acid (EDA; 20:2 ω-6) and/or eicosatrienoic acid (ETrA; 20:3 ω-3)) (FIG. 1).

Based on the role Δ5 desaturase enzymes play in the synthesis of e.g., ARA, EPA and DHA, there has been considerable effort to identify and characterize these enzymes from various sources. As such, numerous Δ5 desaturases have been disclosed in both the open literature (e.g., GenBank Accession No. AF199596, No. AF226273, No. AF320509, No. AB072976, No. AF489588, No. AJ510244, No. AF419297, No. AF07879, No. AF067654 and No. AB022097) and the patent literature (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,972,664 and 6,075,183; see also commonly owned, co-pending Provisional Applications No. 60/801,119 (filed May 17, 2006) disclosing amino acid and nucleic acid sequences for a Δ5 desaturase enzyme from Peridium sp. CCMP626; and No. 60/915,733 (filed May 3, 2007) disclosing amino acid and nucleic acid sequences for a □5 desaturase enzyme from Euglena anabaena.

Applicants have identified and isolated new genes encoding □5 desaturases that are be suitable for heterologous expression in a variety of host organisms for use in the production of ω-3/ω-6 fatty acids. Specifically new genes encoding Δ5 desaturase from Euglena gracilis have been discovered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to new genetic constructs encoding polypeptides having Δ5 desaturase activity, and their use in algae, bacteria, yeast, euglenoids and fungi for the production of PUFAs.

Accordingly the invention provides an isolated nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of:

-   -   (a) an isolated nucleotide sequence encoding a Δ5 desaturase         enzyme as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2;     -   (b) an isolated nucleotide sequence that hybridizes with (a)         under the following hybridization conditions: 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS,         65° C. and washed with 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS followed by 0.1×SSC, 0.1%         SDS; and,     -   (c) an isolated nucleotide sequence that is completely         complementary to (a) or (b).

In another embodiment the invention provides an isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a first nucleotide sequence encoding a Δ5 desaturase enzyme of at least 449 amino acids that has at least 95% identity based on BLASTP algorithms when compared to a polypeptide having the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2;

or a second nucleotide sequence comprising the complement of the first nucleotide sequence.

In other embodiments the invention provides genetic chimera of the nucleic acid molecules encoding the Δ5 desaturases described herein and transformed host cells comprising the same.

In another embodiment the invention provides a method for the production of arachidonic acid comprising:

-   -   a) providing a host cell comprising:         -   (i) an isolated nucleotide molecule encoding a Δ5 desaturase             polypeptide having at least 95% identity when compared to a             polypeptide having the amino acid sequence as set forth in             SEQ ID NO:2, based on BLASTP algorithms; and,         -   (ii) a source of dihomo-γ-linoleic acid;     -   b) growing the host cell of step (a) under conditions wherein         the nucleic acid fragment encoding the Δ5 desaturase polypeptide         is expressed and the dihomo-γ-linoleic acid is converted to         arachidonic acid; and,     -   c) optionally recovering the arachidonic acid of step (b).

Similarly the invention provides a method for the production of eicosapentaenoic acid comprising:

-   -   a) providing a host cell comprising:         -   (i) an isolated nucleotide molecule encoding a Δ5 desaturase             polypeptide having at least 95% identity when compared to a             polypeptide having the amino acid sequence as set forth in             SEQ ID NO:2, based on BLASTP algorithms; and,         -   (ii) a source of eicosatetraenoic acid;     -   b) growing the host cell of step (a) under conditions wherein         the nucleic acid fragment encoding the Δ5 desaturase polypeptide         is expressed and the eicosatetraenoic acid is converted to         eicosapentaenoic acid; and,     -   c) optionally recovering the eicosapentaenoic acid of step (b).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS AND SEQUENCE LISTINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway.

FIG. 2 shows a chromatogram of the lipid profile of an Euglena gracilis cell extract as described in Example 1.

FIG. 3 shows a portion of an alignment between and among Δ5 desaturase proteins and Δ8 desaturase proteins using a Clustal W analysis (MegAlign™ program of DNASTAR software).

FIG. 4 graphically represents the relationship between SEQ ID NOs:1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10, each of which relates to the Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase.

FIG. 5A illustrates the cloning strategy utilized for amplification of the Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase gene (EgD5). FIG. 5B is a plasmid map of pZUF17, while FIG. 5C is a plasmid map of pDMW367.

FIG. 6 provides plasmid maps for the following: (A) pKUNF12T6E; (B) pEgD5S; and, (C) pDMW369.

FIG. 7 shows a comparison of the DNA sequence of the Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase gene (designated as “EgD5”; SEQ ID NO:1) and the synthetic gene (designated as “EgD5S”; SEQ ID NO:3) codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia lipolytica.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show a Clustal V alignment (with default parameters) of a Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase (SEQ ID NO:18), a Pavlova salina Δ8 desaturase (SEQ ID NO:64), a Euglena gracilis Δ8 desaturase (SEQ ID NO:16) and two different Rhizopus stolonifer Δ6 fatty acid desaturases (SEQ ID NOs:51 and 63).

FIG. 9 provides a plasmid map for pY98.

FIG. 10A provides the fatty acid profiles for Yarrowia lipolytica expressing pY98 (SEQ ID NO:76; comprising a Mortierella alpina Δ5 desaturase gene designated as “MaD5”) or pDMW367 (SEQ ID NO:23; comprising the Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase gene designated as “EgD5”) and fed various substrates. FIG. 10B provides a comparison of the ω-3 and ω-6 substrate specificity of MaD5 versus EgD5.

The invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying sequence descriptions, which form a part of this application.

The following sequences comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.821-1.825 (“Requirements for Patent Applications Containing Nucleotide Sequences and/or Amino Acid Sequence Disclosures—the Sequence Rules”) and are consistent with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard ST.25 (1998) and the sequence listing requirements of the EPO and PCT (Rules 5.2 and 49.5(a-bis), and Section 208 and Annex C of the Administrative Instructions). The symbols and format used for nucleotide and amino acid sequence data comply with the rules set forth in 37 C.F.R. §1.822.

SEQ ID NOs:1-26, 48, 49, 51-54, 61-64, 67-72 and 75-76 are ORFs encoding genes or proteins (or portions thereof), or plasmids, as identified in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Summary Of Nucleic Acid And Protein SEQ ID Numbers Nucleic acid Protein Description and Abbreviation SEQ ID NO. SEQ ID NO. Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase (“EgD5”)  1  2   (1350 bp) (449 AA) Synthetic Δ5 desaturase, derived from  3  2 Euglena gracilis, codon-optimized for   (1350 bp) (449 AA) expression in Yarrowia lipolytica (“EgD5S”) Euglena gracilis EgD5-fragment of  4  5 pT-F10-1    (590 bp) (196 AA) Euglena gracilis EgD5-fragment of  6 — pT-EgD5-5′C2    (797 bp) Euglena gracilis EgD5-5′ sequence  7 — relative to SEQ ID NO: 4    (559 bp) Euglena gracilis EgD5-fragment of  8 — pT-EgD5-5′2^(nd)    (273 bp) Euglena gracilis EgD5-5′ sequence  9 — relative to SEQ ID NO: 6     (20 bp) Euglena gracilis EgD5-fragment of 10 — pT-EgD5-3′    (728 bp) Euglena gracilis EgD5-3′ sequence 11 — relative to SEQ ID NO: 4    (464 bp) Pythium irregulare Δ5 desaturase — 12 (GenBank Accession No. AAL13311) (456 AA) Phytophthora megasperma Δ5 desaturase — 13 (Gen Bank Accession No. CAD53323) (477 AA) Phaeodactylum tricornutum Δ5 desaturase — 14 (Gen Bank Accession No. AAL92562) (469 AA) Dictyostelium discoideum Δ5 desaturase — 15 (Gen Bank Accession No. XP_640331) (467 AA) Euglena gracilis Δ8 desaturase (PCT — 16 Publications No. WO 2006/012325 and (421 AA) No. WO 2006/012326) Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) Δ8 desaturase 17 18   (1269 bp) (423 AA) Conserved Region 1 — 19   (7 AA) Conserved Region 2 — 20   (7 AA) Thalassiosira pseudonana Δ8 sphingolipid — 21 desaturase (GenBank Accession No. (476 AA) AAX14502) Plasmid pZUF17 22 —   (8165 bp) Plasmid pDMW367 23 —   (8438 bp) Plasmid pKUNF12T6E 24 — (12,649 bp) Synthetic C_(18/20) elongase gene derived 25 26 from Thraustochytrium aureum (U.S.    (819 bp) (272 AA) Pat. No. 6,677,145), codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia lipolytica (“EL2S”) Plasmid pEgD5S 48 —   (4070 bp) Plasmid pDMW369 49 —   (8438 bp) Rhizopus stolonifer Δ6 fatty acid — 51 desaturase (NCBI Accession No. (459 AA) AAX22052) Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase-portion of 52 — cDNA insert from clone eps1c.pk002.f22    (695 bp) (5′ end of cDNA insert) Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase-fully 53 — sequenced EST eps1c.pk002.f22:fis (full   (1106 bp) insert sequence) Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase-translation — 54 of nucleotides 1-864 of fully sequenced (287 AA) EST eps1c.pk002.f22:fis (full insert sequence; SEQ ID NO: 53) Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase-full 5′ end 61 — sequence from genome walking   (1294 bp) Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase- 62 — assembled sequence   (1927 bp) Rhizopus stolonifer Δ6 fatty acid — 63 desaturase (NCBI Accession No. (459 AA) ABB96724) Pavlova salina Δ8 desaturase — 64 (427 AA) Mortierella alpina Δ5 desaturase 67 68   (1338 bp) (446 AA) Plasmid pY5-22 69 —   (6473 bp) Plasmid pY5-22GPD 70 —   (6970 bp) Yarrowia lipolytica glyceraldehyde-3- 71 — phosphate dehydrogenase promoter    (968 bp) (GPD) Plasmid pYZDE2-S 72 —   (8630 bp) Plasmid pKR136 75 —   (6339 bp) Plasmid pY98 76 —   (8319 bp)

SEQ ID NOs:27-30 correspond to degenerate oligonucleotide primers 5-1A, 5-1B, 5-1C and 5-1D, respectively, that encode Conserved Region 1.

SEQ ID NOs:31-34 correspond to degenerate oligonucleotide primers 5-5AR, 5-5BR, 5-5CR and 5-5DR, respectively, that encode Conserved Region 2.

SEQ ID NOs:35-40 correspond to primers ODMW480, CDSIII 5′ primer, ODMW479, DNR CDS 5′, YL791 and YL792, respectively, used for 5′ RACE.

SEQ ID NOs:41-43 correspond to primers ODMW469, AUAP and ODMW470, respectively, used for 3′ RACE.

SEQ ID NOs:44-47 correspond to primers YL794, YL797, YL796 and YL795, respectively, used for amplification of the full length cDNA of EgD5.

SEQ ID NO:50 corresponds to primer T7, used for sequencing the Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) cDNA library.

SEQ ID NOs:55 and 56 correspond to primers SeqE and SeqW, respectively, used for sequencing Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) clones.

SEQ ID NOs:57 and 58 correspond to the universal primer AP1 and primer GSP PvDES, respectively, used for amplification of genomic Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) DNA.

SEQ ID NOs:59 and 60 correspond to primers M13-28Rev and PavDES seq, respectively, used for sequencing Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) genomic inserts.

SEQ ID NOs:65 and 66 correspond to AP primer and Smart IV oligonucleotide primer, respectively, used for Euglena gracilis cDNA synthesis.

SEQ ID NOs:73 and 74 are primers GPDsense and GPDantisense, respectively, used for amplifying the GPD promoter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

All patents, patent applications, and publications cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. This specifically includes the following commonly owned, co-pending applications: U.S. Pat. No. 7,125,672, U.S. Pat. No. 7,189,559, U.S. Pat. No. 7,192,762, U.S. Pat. No. 7,198,937, U.S. Pat. No. 7,202,356, U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 10/840,579 and Ser. No. 10/840,325 (filed May 6, 2004) now U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,238,482 and 7,214,491, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/869,630 (filed Jun. 16, 2004) now U.S. Pat. No. 7,259,255, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/882,760 (filed Jul. 1, 2004) now U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,976, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/985,254 and Ser. No. 10/985,691 (filed Nov. 10, 2004), wherein Ser. No. 10/985,691 is now U.S. Pat. No. 7,504,259, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/024,544 (filed Dec. 29, 2004) now U.S. Pat. No. 7,273,746, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/166,993 (filed Jun. 24, 2005) now U.S. Pat. No. 7,256,033, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/183,664 (filed Jul. 18, 2005) now U.S. Pat. No. 7,459,546, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/185,301 (filed Jul. 20, 2005), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/190,750 (filed Jul. 27, 2005), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/198,975 (filed Aug. 8, 2005) now U.S. Pat. No. 7,465,564, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/225,354 (filed Sep. 13, 2005) now U.S. Pat. No. 7,264,949, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/253,882 (filed Oct. 19, 2005) now U.S. Pat. No. 7,470,532, U.S. patent application Ser. s No. 11/264,784 and 11/264,737 (filed Nov. 1, 2005) now U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,588,931 and 7,550,286, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/265,761 (filed Nov. 2, 2005), U.S. Patent Application No. 60/795,810 (filed Apr. 28, 2006), U.S. Patent Application No. 60/793,575 (filed Apr. 20, 2006), U.S. Patent Application No. 60/796,637 (filed May 2, 2006), U.S. Patent Application No. 60/801,172 and No. 60/801,119 (filed May 17, 2006), U.S. Patent Application No. 60/853,563 (filed Oct. 23, 2006), U.S. Patent Application No. 60/855,177 (filed Oct. 30, 2006), U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 11/601,563 and Ser. No. 11/601,564 (filed Nov. 16, 2006), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/635,258 (filed Dec. 7, 2006), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/613,420 (filed Dec. 20, 2006), U.S. Patent Application No. 60/909,790 (filed Apr. 3, 2007), U.S. Patent Application No. 60/910,831 (filed Apr. 10, 2007) and U.S. Patent Application No. 60/915,733, (filed May 3, 2007).

Applicants have identified a novel Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase enzyme and gene encoding the same that may be used for the manipulation of biochemical pathways for the production of healthful PUFAs. Thus, the subject invention finds many applications.

PUFAs, or derivatives thereof, made by the methodology disclosed herein can be used as dietary substitutes, or supplements, particularly infant formulas, for patients undergoing intravenous feeding or for preventing or treating malnutrition. Alternatively, the purified PUFAs (or derivatives thereof) may be incorporated into cooking oils, fats or margarines formulated so that in normal use the recipient would receive the desired amount for dietary supplementation. The PUFAs may also be incorporated into infant formulas, nutritional supplements or other food products and may find use as anti-inflammatory or cholesterol lowering agents. Optionally, the compositions may be used for pharmaceutical use (human or veterinary).

Supplementation of humans or animals with PUFAs produced by recombinant means can result in increased levels of the added PUFAs, as well as their metabolic progeny. For example, treatment with EPA can result not only in increased levels of EPA, but also downstream products of EPA such as eicosanoids (i.e., prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxanes). Complex regulatory mechanisms can make it desirable to combine various PUFAs, or add different conjugates of PUFAs, in order to prevent, control or overcome such mechanisms to achieve the desired levels of specific PUFAs in an individual.

Definitions

In this disclosure, a number of terms and abbreviations are used.

The following definitions are provided.

“Open reading frame” is abbreviated ORF.

“Polymerase chain reaction” is abbreviated PCR.

“American Type Culture Collection” is abbreviated ATCC.

“Polyunsaturated fatty acid(s)” is abbreviated PUFA(s).

“Triacylglycerols” are abbreviated TAGs.

The term “invention” or “present invention” as used herein is not meant to be limiting to any one specific embodiment of the invention but applies generally to any and all embodiments of the invention as described in the claims and specification.

The term “fatty acids” refers to long chain aliphatic acids (alkanoic acids) of varying chain lengths, from about C₁₂ to C₂₂ (although both longer and shorter chain-length acids are known). The predominant chain lengths are between C₁₆ and C₂₂. The structure of a fatty acid is represented by a simple notation system of “X:Y”, where X is the total number of carbon (C) atoms in the particular fatty acid and Y is the number of double bonds. Additional details concerning the differentiation between “saturated fatty acids” versus “unsaturated fatty acids”, “monounsaturated fatty acids” versus “polyunsaturated fatty acids” (or “PUFAs”), and “omega-6 fatty acids” (ω-6 or n-6) versus “omega-3 fatty acids” (ω-3 or n-3) are provided in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0136519.

Nomenclature used to describe PUFAs in the present disclosure is shown below in Table 2. In the column titled “Shorthand Notation”, the omega-reference system is used to indicate the number of carbons, the number of double bonds and the position of the double bond closest to the omega carbon, counting from the omega carbon (which is numbered 1 for this purpose). The remainder of the Table summarizes the common names of ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids and their precursors, the abbreviations that will be used throughout the specification and each compounds' chemical name.

TABLE 2 Nomenclature of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids And Precursors Shorthand Common Name Abbreviation Chemical Name Notation Myristic — tetradecanoic 14:0 Palmitic Palmitate hexadecanoic 16:0 Palmitoleic — 9-hexadecenoic 16:1 Stearic — octadecanoic 18:0 Oleic — cis-9-octadecenoic 18:1 Linoleic LA cis-9,12-octadecadienoic 18:2 ω-6 γ-Linoleic GLA cis-6,9,12- 18:3 ω-6 octadecatrienoic Eicosadienoic EDA cis-11,14-eicosadienoic 20:2 ω-6 Dihomo-γ- DGLA cis-8,11,14- 20:3 ω-6 Linoleic eicosatrienoic Arachidonic ARA cis-5,8,11,14- 20:4 ω-6 eicosatetraenoic α-Linolenic ALA cis-9,12,15- 18:3 ω-3 octadecatrienoic Stearidonic STA cis-6,9,12,15- 18:4 ω-3 octadecatetraenoic Eicosatrienoic ETrA or ERA cis-11,14,17- 20:3 ω-3 eicosatrienoic Sciadonic SCI cis-5,11,14-eicosatrienoic 20:3b ω-6 Juniperonic JUP cis-5,11,14,17- 20:4b ω-3 eicosatetraenoic Eicosa- ETA cis-8,11,14,17- 20:4 ω-3 tetraenoic eicosatetraenoic Eicosa- EPA cis-5,8,11,14,17- 20:5 ω-3 pentaenoic eicosapentaenoic Docosa- DPA cis-7,10,13,16,19- 22:5 ω-3 pentaenoic docosapentaenoic Docosa- DHA cis-4,7,10,13,16,19- 22:6 ω-3 hexaenoic docosahexaenoic

The terms “triacylglycerol”, “oil” and “TAGs” refer to neutral lipids composed of three fatty acyl residues esterified to a glycerol molecule (and such terms will be used interchangeably throughout the present disclosure herein). Such oils can contain long chain PUFAs, as well as shorter saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and longer chain saturated fatty acids. Thus, “oil biosynthesis” generically refers to the synthesis of TAGs in the cell.

“Percent (%) PUFAs in the total lipid and oil fractions” refers to the percent of PUFAs relative to the total fatty acids in those fractions. The term “total lipid fraction” or “lipid fraction” both refer to the sum of all lipids (i.e., neutral and polar) within an oleaginous organism, thus including those lipids that are located in the phosphatidylcholine (PC) fraction, phosphatidyletanolamine (PE) fraction and triacylglycerol (TAG or oil) fraction. However, the terms “lipid” and “oil” will be used interchangeably throughout the specification.

A metabolic pathway, or biosynthetic pathway, in a biochemical sense, can be regarded as a series of chemical reactions occurring within a cell, catalyzed by enzymes, to achieve either the formation of a metabolic product to be used or stored by the cell, or the initiation of another metabolic pathway (then called a flux generating step). Many of these pathways are elaborate, and involve a step by step modification of the initial substance to shape it into a product having the exact chemical structure desired.

The term “PUFA biosynthetic pathway” refers to a metabolic process that converts oleic acid to LA, EDA, GLA, DGLA, ARA, ALA, STA, ETrA, ETA, EPA, DPA and DHA. This process is well described in the literature (e.g., see PCT Publication No. WO 2006/052870). Briefly, this process involves elongation of the carbon chain through the addition of carbon atoms and desaturation of the molecule through the addition of double bonds, via a series of special desaturation and elongation enzymes (i.e., “PUFA biosynthetic pathway enzymes”) present in the endoplasmic reticulim membrane. More specifically, “PUFA biosynthetic pathway enzymes” refer to any of the following enzymes (and genes which encode said enzymes) associated with the biosynthesis of a PUFA, including: a Δ4 desaturase, a Δ5 desaturase, a Δ6 desaturase, a Δ12 desaturase, a Δ15 desaturase, a Δ17 desaturase, a Δ9 desaturase, a Δ8 desaturase, a Δ9 elongase, a C_(14/16) elongase, a C_(16/18) elongase, a C_(18/20) elongase and/or a C_(20/22) elongase.

The term “ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway” refers to a set of genes which, when expressed under the appropriate conditions encode enzymes that catalyze the production of either or both ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids. Typically the genes involved in the ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway encode PUFA biosynthetic pathway enzymes. A representative pathway is illustrated in FIG. 1, providing for the conversion of myristic acid through various intermediates to DHA, which demonstrates how both ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids may be produced from a common source. The pathway is naturally divided into two portions where one portion will generate ω-3 fatty acids and the other portion, only ω-6 fatty acids. That portion that only generates ω-3 fatty acids will be referred to herein as the ω-3 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway, whereas that portion that generates only ω-6 fatty acids will be referred to herein as the ω-6 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway.

The term “functional” as used herein in context with the ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway means that some (or all) of the genes in the pathway express active enzymes, resulting in in vivo catalysis or substrate conversion. It should be understood that “ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway” or “functional ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid biosynthetic pathway” does not imply that all the genes listed in the above paragraph are required, as a number of fatty acid products will only require the expression of a subset of the genes of this pathway.

The term “Δ6 desaturase/Δ6 elongase pathway” will refer to a PUFA biosynthetic pathway that minimally includes at least one Δ6 desaturase and at least one C_(18/20) elongase, thereby enabling biosynthesis of DGLA and/or ETA from LA and ALA, respectively, with GLA and/or STA as intermediate fatty acids. With expression of other desaturases and elongases, ARA, EPA, DPA and DHA may also be synthesized.

The term “Δ9 elongase/Δ8 desaturase pathway” will refer to a PUFA biosynthetic pathway that minimally includes at least one Δ9 elongase and at least one Δ8 desaturase, thereby enabling biosynthesis of DGLA and/or ETA from LA and ALA, respectively, with EDA and/or ETrA as intermediate fatty acids. With expression of other desaturases and elongases, ARA, EPA, DPA and DHA may also be synthesized.

The term “intermediate fatty acid” refers to any fatty acid produced in a fatty acid metabolic pathway that can be further converted to an intended product fatty acid in this pathway by the action of other metabolic pathway enzymes. For instance, when EPA is produced using the Δ9 elongase/Δ8 desaturase pathway, EDA, ETrA, DGLA, ETA and ARA can be produced and are considered “intermediate fatty acids” since these fatty acids can be further converted to EPA via action of other metabolic pathway enzymes.

The term “by-product fatty acid” refers to any fatty acid produced in a fatty acid metabolic pathway that is not the intended fatty acid product of the pathway nor an “intermediate fatty acid” of the pathway. For instance, when EPA is produced using the Δ9 elongase/Δ8 desaturase pathway, sciadonic acid (SCI) and juniperonic acid (JUP) also can be produced by the action of a Δ5 desaturase on either EDA or ETrA, respectively. They are considered to be “by-product fatty acids” since neither can be further converted to EPA by the action of other metabolic pathway enzymes.

The term “desaturase” refers to a polypeptide that can desaturate, i.e., introduce a double bond, in one or more fatty acids to produce a fatty acid or precursor of interest. Despite use of the omega-reference system throughout the specification to refer to specific fatty acids, it is more convenient to indicate the activity of a desaturase by counting from the carboxyl end of the substrate using the delta-system. Of particular interest herein are Δ5 desaturases that catalyze the conversion of DGLA to ARA and/or ETA to EPA. Other desaturases include: 1.) Δ17 desaturases that desaturate a fatty acid between the 17^(th) and 18^(th) carbon atom numbered from the carboxyl-terminal end of the molecule and which, for example, catalyze the conversion of ARA to EPA and/or DGLA to ETA; 2.) Δ6 desaturases that catalyze the conversion of LA to GLA and/or ALA to STA; 3.) Δ12 desaturases that catalyze the conversion of oleic acid to LA; 4.) Δ15 desaturases that catalyze the conversion of LA to ALA and/or GLA to STA; 5.) Δ4 desaturases that catalyze the conversion of DPA to DHA; 6.) Δ8 desaturases that catalyze the conversion of EDA to DGLA and/or ETrA to ETA; and, 7.) Δ9 desaturases that catalyze the conversion of palmitate to palmitoleic acid (16:1) and/or stearate to oleic acid. In the art, Δ15 and Δ17 desaturases are also occasionally referred to as “omega-3 desaturases”, “w-3 desaturases”, and/or “ω-3 desaturases”, based on their ability to convert ω-6 fatty acids into their ω-3 counterparts (e.g., conversion of LA into ALA and ARA into EPA, respectively). In some embodiments, it is most desirable to empirically determine the specificity of a particular fatty acid desaturase by transforming a suitable host with the gene for the fatty acid desaturase and determining its effect on the fatty acid profile of the host.

The term “EgD5” refers to a Δ5 desaturase enzyme (SEQ ID NO:2) isolated from Euglena gracilis, encoded by SEQ ID NO:1 herein. Similarly, the term “EgD5S” refers to a synthetic Δ5 desaturase derived from Euglena gracilis that is codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia lipolytica (i.e., SEQ ID NOs:3 and 2).

The terms “conversion efficiency” and “percent substrate conversion” refer to the efficiency by which a particular enzyme (e.g., a desaturase) can convert substrate to product. The conversion efficiency is measured according to the following formula: ([product]/[substrate+product])*100, where ‘product’ includes the immediate product and all products in the pathway derived from it.

The term “elongase” refers to a polypeptide that can elongate a fatty acid carbon chain to produce an acid that is 2 carbons longer than the fatty acid substrate that the elongase acts upon. This process of elongation occurs in a multi-step mechanism in association with fatty acid synthase, as described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0132442. Examples of reactions catalyzed by elongase systems are the conversion of GLA to DGLA, STA to ETA and EPA to DPA. In general, the substrate selectivity of elongases is somewhat broad but segregated by both chain length and the degree and type of unsaturation. For example, a C_(14/16) elongase will utilize a C₁₄ substrate (e.g., myristic acid), a C_(16/18) elongase will utilize a C₁₆ substrate (e.g., palmitate), a C_(18/20) elongase (also known as a Δ6 elongase as the terms can be used interchangeably) will utilize a C₁₈ substrate (e.g., GLA, STA) and a C_(20/22) elongase will utilize a C₂₀ substrate (e.g., EPA). In like manner, a Δ9 elongase is able to catalyze the conversion of LA and ALA to EDA and ETrA, respectively. It is important to note that some elongases have broad specificity and thus a single enzyme may be capable of catalyzing several elongase reactions (e.g., thereby acting as both a C_(16/18) elongase and a C_(18/20) elongase).

The term “oleaginous” refers to those organisms that tend to store their energy source in the form of lipid (Weete, In: Fungal Lipid Biochemistry, 2^(nd) Ed., Plenum, 1980). The term “oleaginous yeast” refers to those microorganisms classified as yeasts that can make oil. Generally, the cellular oil or TAG content of oleaginous microorganisms follows a sigmoid curve, wherein the concentration of lipid increases until it reaches a maximum at the late logarithmic or early stationary growth phase and then gradually decreases during the late stationary and death phases (Yongmanitchai and Ward, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 57:419-25 (1991)). It is not uncommon for oleaginous microorganisms to accumulate in excess of about 25% of their dry cell weight as oil. Examples of oleaginous yeast include, but are no means limited to, the following genera: Yarrowia, Candida, Rhodotorula, Rhodosporidium, Cryptococcus, Trichosporon and Lipomyces.

The term “Euglenophyceae” refers to a group of unicellular colorless or photosynthetic flagellates (“euglenoids”) found living in freshwater, marine, soil and parasitic environments. The class is characterized by solitary unicells, wherein most are free-swimming and have two flagella (one of which may be nonemergent) arising from an anterior invagination known as a reservoir. Photosynthetic euglenoids contain one to many chloroplasts, which vary from minute disks to expanded plates or ribbons. Colorless euglenoids depend on osmotrophy or phagotrophy for nutrient assimilation. About 1000 species have been described and classified into about 40 genera and 6 orders. Examples of Euglenophyceae include, but are no means limited to, the following genera: Euglena, Eutreptiella and Tetruetreptia.

As used herein, the terms “isolated nucleic acid fragment” or “isolated nucleic acid molecule” will be used interchangeably and refer to a polymer of RNA or DNA that is single- or double-stranded, optionally containing synthetic, non-natural or altered nucleotide bases. An isolated nucleic acid fragment in the form of a polymer of DNA may be comprised of one or more segments of cDNA, genomic DNA or synthetic DNA.

A nucleic acid fragment is “hybridizable” to another nucleic acid fragment, such as a cDNA, genomic DNA, or RNA molecule, when a single-stranded form of the nucleic acid fragment can anneal to the other nucleic acid fragment under the appropriate conditions of temperature and solution ionic strength. Hybridization and washing conditions are well known and exemplified in Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1989), particularly Chapter 11 and Table 11.1 therein (entirely incorporated herein by reference). The conditions of temperature and ionic strength determine the “stringency” of the hybridization. Stringency conditions can be adjusted to screen for moderately similar fragments (such as homologous sequences from distantly related organisms), to highly similar fragments (such as genes that duplicate functional enzymes from closely related organisms). Post-hybridization washes determine stringency conditions. One set of preferred conditions uses a series of washes starting with 6×SSC, 0.5% SDS at room temperature for 15 min, then repeated with 2×SSC, 0.5% SDS at 45° C. for 30 min, and then repeated twice with 0.2×SSC, 0.5% SDS at 50° C. for 30 min. A more preferred set of stringent conditions uses higher temperatures in which the washes are identical to those above except for the temperature of the final two 30 min washes in 0.2×SSC, 0.5% SDS was increased to 60° C. Another preferred set of highly stringent conditions uses two final washes in 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 65° C. An additional set of stringent conditions include hybridization at 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, 65° C. and washes with 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS followed by 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, for example.

Hybridization requires that the two nucleic acids contain complementary sequences, although depending on the stringency of the hybridization, mismatches between bases are possible. The appropriate stringency for hybridizing nucleic acids depends on the length of the nucleic acids and the degree of complementation, variables well known in the art. The greater the degree of similarity or homology between two nucleotide sequences, the greater the value of Tm for hybrids of nucleic acids having those sequences. The relative stability (corresponding to higher Tm) of nucleic acid hybridizations decreases in the following order: RNA:RNA, DNA:RNA, DNA:DNA. For hybrids of greater than 100 nucleotides in length, equations for calculating Tm have been derived (see Sambrook et al., supra, 9.50-9.51). For hybridizations with shorter nucleic acids, i.e., oligonucleotides, the position of mismatches becomes more important, and the length of the oligonucleotide determines its specificity (see Sambrook et al., supra, 11.7-11.8). In one embodiment the length for a hybridizable nucleic acid is at least about 10 nucleotides. Preferably a minimum length for a hybridizable nucleic acid is at least about 15 nucleotides; more preferably at least about 20 nucleotides; and most preferably the length is at least about 30 nucleotides. Furthermore, the skilled artisan will recognize that the temperature and wash solution salt concentration may be adjusted as necessary according to factors such as length of the probe.

A “substantial portion” of an amino acid or nucleotide sequence is that portion comprising enough of the amino acid sequence of a polypeptide or the nucleotide sequence of a gene to putatively identify that polypeptide or gene, either by manual evaluation of the sequence by one skilled in the art, or by computer-automated sequence comparison and identification using algorithms such as BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool; Altschul, S. F., et al., J. Mol. Biol., 215:403-410 (1993)). In general, a sequence of ten or more contiguous amino acids or thirty or more nucleotides is necessary in order to putatively identify a polypeptide or nucleic acid sequence as homologous to a known protein or gene. Moreover, with respect to nucleotide sequences, gene specific oligonucleotide probes comprising 20-30 contiguous nucleotides may be used in sequence-dependent methods of gene identification (e.g., Southern hybridization) and isolation (e.g., in situ hybridization of bacterial colonies or bacteriophage plaques). In addition, short oligonucleotides of 12-15 bases may be used as amplification primers in PCR in order to obtain a particular nucleic acid fragment comprising the primers. Accordingly, a “substantial portion” of a nucleotide sequence comprises enough of the sequence to specifically identify and/or isolate a nucleic acid fragment comprising the sequence. The instant specification teaches the complete amino acid and nucleotide sequence encoding particular euglenoid proteins. The skilled artisan, having the benefit of the sequences as reported herein, may now use all or a substantial portion of the disclosed sequences for purposes known to those skilled in this art. Accordingly, the instant invention comprises the complete sequences as reported in the accompanying Sequence Listing, as well as substantial portions of those sequences as defined above.

The term “complementary” is used to describe the relationship between nucleotide bases that are capable of hybridizing to one another. For example, with respect to DNA, adenosine is complementary to thymine and cytosine is complementary to guanine. Accordingly, the invention herein also includes isolated nucleic acid fragments that are complementary to the complete sequences as reported in the accompanying Sequence Listing, as well as those substantially similar nucleic acid sequences.

The terms “homology” and “homologous” are used interchangeably herein. They refer to nucleic acid fragments wherein changes in one or more nucleotide bases do not affect the ability of the nucleic acid fragment to mediate gene expression or produce a certain phenotype. These terms also refer to modifications of the nucleic acid fragments of the present invention such as deletion or insertion of one or more nucleotides that do not substantially alter the functional properties of the resulting nucleic acid fragment relative to the initial, unmodified fragment. It is therefore understood, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, that the invention encompasses more than the specific exemplary sequences.

Moreover, the skilled artisan recognizes that homologous nucleic acid sequences encompassed by this invention are also defined by their ability to hybridize, under moderately stringent conditions (e.g., 0.5×SSC, 0.1% SDS, 60° C.) with the sequences exemplified herein, or to any portion of the nucleotide sequences disclosed herein and which are functionally equivalent to any of the nucleic acid sequences disclosed herein.

“Codon degeneracy” refers to the nature in the genetic code permitting variation of the nucleotide sequence without effecting the amino acid sequence of an encoded polypeptide. Accordingly, the instant invention relates to any nucleic acid fragment that encodes all or a substantial portion of the amino acid sequence encoding the instant euglenoid polypeptide as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2. The skilled artisan is well aware of the “codon-bias” exhibited by a specific host cell in usage of nucleotide codons to specify a given amino acid. Therefore, when synthesizing a gene for improved expression in a host cell, it is desirable to design the gene such that its frequency of codon usage approaches the frequency of preferred codon usage of the host cell.

“Chemically synthesized”, as related to a sequence of DNA, means that the component nucleotides were assembled in vitro. Manual chemical synthesis of DNA may be accomplished using well-established procedures or, automated chemical synthesis can be performed using one of a number of commercially available machines. “Synthetic genes” can be assembled from oligonucleotide building blocks that are chemically synthesized using procedures known to those skilled in the art. These building blocks are ligated and annealed to form gene segments that are then enzymatically assembled to construct the entire gene. Accordingly, the genes can be tailored for optimal gene expression based on optimization of nucleotide sequence to reflect the codon bias of the host cell. The skilled artisan appreciates the likelihood of successful gene expression if codon usage is biased towards those codons favored by the host. Determination of preferred codons can be based on a survey of genes derived from the host cell, where sequence information is available. “Gene” refers to a nucleic acid fragment that expresses a specific protein, and that may refer to the coding region alone or may include regulatory sequences preceding (5′ non-coding sequences) and following (3′ non-coding sequences) the coding sequence. “Native gene” refers to a gene as found in nature with its own regulatory sequences. “Chimeric gene” refers to any gene that is not a native gene, comprising regulatory and coding sequences that are not found together in nature. Accordingly, a chimeric gene may comprise regulatory sequences and coding sequences that are derived from different sources, or regulatory sequences and coding sequences derived from the same source, but arranged in a manner different than that found in nature. “Endogenous gene” refers to a native gene in its natural location in the genome of an organism. A “foreign” gene refers to a gene that is introduced into the host organism by gene transfer. Foreign genes can comprise native genes inserted into a non-native organism, native genes introduced into a new location within the native host, or chimeric genes. A “transgene” is a gene that has been introduced into the genome by a transformation procedure. A “codon-optimized gene” is a gene having its frequency of codon usage designed to mimic the frequency of preferred codon usage of the host cell.

“Coding sequence” refers to a DNA sequence that codes for a specific amino acid sequence. “Suitable regulatory sequences” refer to nucleotide sequences located upstream (5′ non-coding sequences), within, or downstream (3′ non-coding sequences) of a coding sequence, and which influence the transcription, RNA processing or stability, or translation of the associated coding sequence. Regulatory sequences may include promoters, translation leader sequences, introns, polyadenylation recognition sequences, RNA processing sites, effector binding sites and stem-loop structures.

“Promoter” refers to a DNA sequence capable of controlling the expression of a coding sequence or functional RNA. In general, a coding sequence is located 3′ to a promoter sequence. Promoters may be derived in their entirety from a native gene, or be composed of different elements derived from different promoters found in nature, or even comprise synthetic DNA segments. It is understood by those skilled in the art that different promoters may direct the expression of a gene in different tissues or cell types, or at different stages of development, or in response to different environmental or physiological conditions. Promoters that cause a gene to be expressed in most cell types at most times are commonly referred to as “constitutive promoters”. It is further recognized that since in most cases the exact boundaries of regulatory sequences have not been completely defined, DNA fragments of different lengths may have identical promoter activity.

The terms “3′ non-coding sequences” and “transcription terminator” refer to DNA sequences located downstream of a coding sequence. This includes polyadenylation recognition sequences and other sequences encoding regulatory signals capable of affecting mRNA processing or gene expression. The polyadenylation signal is usually characterized by affecting the addition of polyadenylic acid tracts to the 3′ end of the mRNA precursor. The 3′ region can influence the transcription, RNA processing or stability, or translation of the associated coding sequence.

“RNA transcript” refers to the product resulting from RNA polymerase-catalyzed transcription of a DNA sequence. When the RNA transcript is a perfect complementary copy of the DNA sequence, it is referred to as the primary transcript or it may be a RNA sequence derived from post-transcriptional processing of the primary transcript and is referred to as the mature RNA. “Messenger RNA” or “mRNA” refers to the RNA that is without introns and that can be translated into protein by the cell. “cDNA” refers to a double-stranded DNA that is complementary to, and derived from, mRNA. “Sense” RNA refers to RNA transcript that includes the mRNA and so can be translated into protein by the cell. “Antisense RNA” refers to a RNA transcript that is complementary to all or part of a target primary transcript or mRNA and that blocks the expression of a target gene (U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,065; PCT Publication No. WO 99/28508). The complementarity of an antisense RNA may be with any part of the specific gene transcript, i.e., at the 5′ non-coding sequence, 3′ non-coding sequence, or the coding sequence. “Functional RNA” refers to antisense RNA, ribozyme RNA, or other RNA that is not translated and yet has an effect on cellular processes.

The term “operably linked” refers to the association of nucleic acid sequences on a single nucleic acid fragment so that the function of one is affected by the other. For example, a promoter is operably linked with a coding sequence when it is capable of affecting the expression of that coding sequence (i.e., the coding sequence is under the transcriptional control of the promoter). Coding sequences can be operably linked to regulatory sequences in sense or antisense orientation.

The term “expression”, as used herein, refers to the transcription and stable accumulation of sense (mRNA) or antisense RNA derived from the nucleic acid fragments of the invention. Expression may also refer to translation of mRNA into a polypeptide.

“Mature” protein refers to a post-translationally processed polypeptide, i.e., one from which any pre- or propeptides present in the primary translation product have been removed. “Precursor” protein refers to the primary product of translation of mRNA, i.e., with pre- and propeptides still present. Pre- and propeptides may be (but are not limited to) intracellular localization signals.

“Transformation” refers to the transfer of a nucleic acid molecule into a host organism, resulting in genetically stable inheritance. The nucleic acid molecule may be a plasmid that replicates autonomously, for example, or, it may integrate into the genome of the host organism. Host organisms containing the transformed nucleic acid fragments are referred to as “transgenic” or “recombinant” or “transformed” organisms.

The terms “plasmid”, “vector” and “cassette” refer to an extra chromosomal element often carrying genes that are not part of the central metabolism of the cell, and usually in the form of circular double-stranded DNA fragments. Such elements may be autonomously replicating sequences, genome integrating sequences, phage or nucleotide sequences, linear or circular, of a single- or double-stranded DNA or RNA, derived from any source, in which a number of nucleotide sequences have been joined or recombined into a unique construction which is capable of introducing a promoter fragment and DNA sequence for a selected gene product along with appropriate 3′ untranslated sequence into a cell. “Expression cassette” refers to a specific vector containing a foreign gene and having elements in addition to the foreign gene that allow for enhanced expression of that gene in a foreign host.

The term “percent identity”, as known in the art, is a relationship between two or more polypeptide sequences or two or more polynucleotide sequences, as determined by comparing the sequences. In the art, “identity” also means the degree of sequence relatedness between polypeptide or polynucleotide sequences, as the case may be, as determined by the match between strings of such sequences. “Identity” and “similarity” can be readily calculated by known methods, including but not limited to those described in: 1.) Computational Molecular Biology (Lesk, A. M., Ed.) Oxford University: NY (1988); 2.) Biocomputing: Informatics and Genome Projects (Smith, D. W., Ed.) Academic: NY (1993); 3.) Computer Analysis of Sequence Data, Part I (Griffin, A. M., and Griffin, H. G., Eds.) Humania: NJ (1994); 4.) Sequence Analysis in Molecular Biology (von Heinje, G., Ed.) Academic (1987); and, 5.) Sequence Analysis Primer (Gribskov, M. and Devereux, J., Eds.) Stockton: NY (1991).

Preferred methods to determine identity are designed to give the best match between the sequences tested. Methods to determine identity and similarity are codified in publicly available computer programs. Sequence alignments and percent identity calculations may be performed using the MegAlign™ program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc., Madison, Wis.). Multiple alignment of the sequences is performed using the “Clustal method of alignment” which encompasses several varieties of the algorithm including the “Clustal V method of alignment” corresponding to the alignment method labeled Clustal V (described by Higgins and Sharp, CABIOS, 5:151-153 (1989); Higgins, D.G. et al., Comput. Appl. Biosci., 8:189-191 (1992)) and found in the MegAlign™ program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc.). For multiple alignments, the default values correspond to GAP PENALTY=10 and GAP LENGTH PENALTY=10. Default parameters for pairwise alignments and calculation of percent identity of protein sequences using the Clustal V method are KTUPLE=1, GAP PENALTY=3, WINDOW=5 and DIAGONALS SAVED=5. For nucleic acids these parameters are KTUPLE=2, GAP PENALTY=5, WINDOW=4 and DIAGONALS SAVED=4. After alignment of the sequences using the Clustal V program, it is possible to obtain a “percent identity” by viewing the “sequence distances” table in the same program. Additionally the “Clustal W method of alignment” is available and corresponds to the alignment method labeled Clustal W (described by Higgins and Sharp, CABIOS, 5:151-153 (1989); Higgins, D. G. et al., Comput. Appl. Biosci., 8:189-191(1992)) and found in the MegAlign™ v 6.1 program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc.). Default parameters for multiple alignment correspond to GAP PENALTY=10, GAP LENGTH PENALTY=0.2, Delay Divergen Seqs(%)=30, DNA Transition Weight=0.5, Protein Weight Matrix=Gonnet Series, DNA Weight Matrix=IUB. After alignment of the sequences using the Clustal W program, it is possible to obtain a “percent identity” by viewing the “sequence distances” table in the same program.

It is well understood by one skilled in the art that many levels of sequence identity are useful in identifying polypeptides, from other species, wherein such polypeptides have the same or similar function or activity. Suitable nucleic acid fragments (isolated polynucleotides of the present invention) encode polypeptides that are at least about 70% identical, preferably at least about 75% identical, and more preferably at least about 80% identical to the amino acid sequences reported herein. Preferred nucleic acid fragments encode amino acid sequences that are at least about 85% identical to the amino acid sequences reported herein. More preferred nucleic acid fragments encode amino acid sequences that are at least about 90% identical to the amino acid sequences reported herein. Most preferred are nucleic acid fragments that encode amino acid sequences that are at least about 95% identical to the amino acid sequences reported herein. Although preferred ranges are described above, any integer amino acid identity from 39% to 100% may be useful in describing the present invention, such as 40%, 41%, 42%, 43%, 44%, 45%, 46%, 47%, 48%, 49%, 50%, 51%, 52%, 53%, 54%, 55%, 56%, 57%, 58%, 59%, 60%, 61%, 62%, 63%, 64%, 65%, 66%, 67%, 68%, 69%, 70%, 71%, 72%, 73%, 74%, 75%, 76%, 77%, 78%, 79%, 80%, 81%, 82%, 83%, 84%, 85%, 86%, 87%, 88%, 89%, 90%, 91%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99%.

Suitable nucleic acid fragments not only have the above homologies but typically encode a polypeptide having at least 50 amino acids, preferably at least 100 amino acids, more preferably at least 150 amino acids, still more preferably at least 200 amino acids, and most preferably at least 250 amino acids.

The term “conserved domain” or “motif” means a set of amino acids conserved at specific positions along an aligned sequence of evolutionarily related proteins. While amino acids at other positions can vary between homologous proteins, amino acids that are highly conserved at specific positions indicate amino acids that are essential in the structure, the stability, or the activity of a protein. Because they are identified by their high degree of conservation in aligned sequences of a family of protein homologues, they can be used as identifiers, or “signatures”, to determine if a protein with a newly determined sequence belongs to a previously identified protein family.

The term “sequence analysis software” refers to any computer algorithm or software program that is useful for the analysis of nucleotide or amino acid sequences. “Sequence analysis software” may be commercially available or independently developed. Typical sequence analysis software will include, but is not limited to: 1.) the GCG suite of programs (Wisconsin Package Version 9.0, Genetics Computer Group (GCG), Madison, Wis.); 2.) BLASTP, BLASTN, BLASTX (Altschul et al., J. Mol. Biol., 215:403-410 (1990)); 3.) DNASTAR (DNASTAR, Inc. Madison, Wis.); 4.) Sequencher (Gene Codes Corporation, Ann Arbor, Mich.); and 5.) the FASTA program incorporating the Smith-Waterman algorithm (W. R. Pearson, Comput. Methods Genome Res., [Proc. Int. Symp.] (1994), Meeting Date 1992, 111-20. Editor(s): Suhai, Sandor. Plenum: New York, N.Y.). Within the context of this application it will be understood that where sequence analysis software is used for analysis, that the results of the analysis will be based on the “default values” of the program referenced, unless otherwise specified. As used herein “default values” will mean any set of values or parameters that originally load with the software when first initialized. With regard to the BLASTP algorithm used herein, default parameters will include the Robinson and Robinson amino acid frequencies (Robinson A. B., Robinson L. R., Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 88:8880-8884 (1991)), the BLOSUM62 scoring matrix and the gap cost Δ(g)=11+g.

Standard recombinant DNA and molecular cloning techniques used herein are well known in the art and are described by Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1989) (hereinafter “Maniatis”); by Silhavy, T. J., Bennan, M. L. and Enquist, L. W., Experiments with Gene Fusions, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1984); and by Ausubel, F. M. et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, published by Greene Publishing Assoc. and Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken, N.J. (1987).

An Overview: Microbial Biosynthesis of Fatty Acids and Triacylglycerols

In general, lipid accumulation in oleaginous microorganisms is triggered in response to the overall carbon to nitrogen ratio present in the growth medium. This process, leading to the de novo synthesis of free palmitate (16:0) in oleaginous microorganisms, is described in detail in PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101757. Palmitate is the precursor of longer-chain saturated and unsaturated fatty acid derivates, which are formed through the action of elongases and desaturases (FIG. 1).

TAGs (the primary storage unit for fatty acids) are formed by a series of reactions that involve: 1.) the esterification of one molecule of acyl-CoA to glycerol-3-phosphate via an acyltransferase to produce lysophosphatidic acid; 2.) the esterification of a second molecule of acyl-CoA via an acyltransferase to yield 1,2-diacylglycerol phosphate (commonly identified as phosphatidic acid); 3.) removal of a phosphate by phosphatidic acid phosphatase to yield 1,2-diacylglycerol (DAG); and, 4.) the addition of a third fatty acid by the action of an acyltransferase to form TAG. A wide spectrum of fatty acids can be incorporated into TAGs, including saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and short-chain and long-chain fatty acids.

Biosynthesis of Omega Fatty Acids

The metabolic process wherein oleic acid is converted to ω-3/ω-6 fatty acids involves elongation of the carbon chain through the addition of carbon atoms and desaturation of the molecule through the addition of double bonds. This requires a series of special desaturation and elongation enzymes present in the endoplasmic reticulim membrane. However, as seen in FIG. 1 and as described below, there are often multiple alternate pathways for production of a specific ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid.

Specifically, all pathways require the initial conversion of oleic acid to LA, the first of the ω-6 fatty acids, by a Δ12 desaturase. Then, using the “Δ6 desaturase/Δ6 elongase pathway”, ω-6 fatty acids are formed as follows: (1) LA is converted to GLA by a Δ6 desaturase; (2) GLA is converted to DGLA by a C_(18/20) elongase; and, (3) DGLA is converted to ARA by a Δ5 desaturase. Alternatively, the “Δ6 desaturase/Δ6 elongase pathway” can be utilized for formation of ω-3 fatty acids as follows: (1) LA is converted to ALA, the first of the ω-3 fatty acids, by a Δ15 desaturase; (2) ALA is converted to STA by a Δ6 desaturase; (3) STA is converted to ETA by a C_(18/20) elongase; (4) ETA is converted to EPA by a Δ5 desaturase; (5) EPA is converted to DPA by a C_(20/22) elongase; and, (6) DPA is converted to DHA by a Δ4 desaturase. Optionally, ω-6 fatty acids may be converted to ω-3 fatty acids; for example, ETA and EPA are produced from DGLA and ARA, respectively, by Δ17 desaturase activity.

Alternate pathways for the biosynthesis of ω-3/ω-6 fatty acids utilize a Δ9 elongase and Δ8 desaturase. More specifically, LA and ALA may be converted to EDA and ETrA, respectively, by a Δ9 elongase; then, a Δ8 desaturase converts EDA to DGLA and/or ETrA to ETA.

It is contemplated that the particular functionalities required to be expressed in a specific host organism for production of ω-3/ω-6 fatty acids will depend on the host cell (and its native PUFA profile and/or desaturase/elongase profile), the availability of substrate, and the desired end product(s). One skilled in the art will be able to identify various candidate genes encoding each of the enzymes desired for ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid biosynthesis. Useful desaturase and elongase sequences may be derived from any source, e.g., isolated from a natural source (from bacteria, algae, fungi, plants, animals, etc.), produced via a semi-synthetic route or synthesized de novo. Although the particular source of the desaturase and elongase genes introduced into the host is not critical, considerations for choosing a specific polypeptide having desaturase or elongase activity include: 1.) the substrate specificity of the polypeptide; 2.) whether the polypeptide or a component thereof is a rate-limiting enzyme; 3.) whether the desaturase or elongase is essential for synthesis of a desired PUFA; and/or, 4.) co-factors required by the polypeptide. The expressed polypeptide preferably has parameters compatible with the biochemical environment of its location in the host cell (see PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101757 for additional details).

In additional embodiments, it will also be useful to consider the conversion efficiency of each particular desaturase and/or elongase. More specifically, since each enzyme rarely functions with 100% efficiency to convert substrate to product, the final lipid profile of un-purified oils produced in a host cell will typically be a mixture of various PUFAs consisting of the desired ω-3/ω-6 fatty acid, as well as various upstream intermediary PUFAs. Thus, each enzyme's conversion efficiency is also a variable to consider, when optimizing biosynthesis of a desired fatty acid.

With each of the considerations above in mind, candidate genes having the appropriate desaturase and elongase activities (e.g., Δ6 desaturases, C_(18/20) elongases, Δ5 desaturases, Δ17 desaturases, Δ15 desaturases, Δ9 desaturases, Δ12 desaturases, C_(14/16) elongases, C_(16/18) elongases, Δ9 elongases, Δ8 desaturases, Δ4 desaturases and C_(20/22) elongases) can be identified according to publicly available literature (e.g., GenBank), the patent literature, and experimental analysis of organisms having the ability to produce PUFAs. These genes will be suitable for introduction into a specific host organism, to enable or enhance the organism's synthesis of PUFAs.

Sequence Identification of a Novel Euglena gracilisΔ5 Desaturase

In the present invention, a nucleotide sequence (SEQ ID NO:1) has been isolated from Euglena gracilis encoding a Δ5 desaturase (SEQ ID NO:2), designated herein as “EgD5”.

Comparison of the EgD5 nucleotide base and deduced amino acid sequences to public databases reveals that the most similar known sequences are about 39% identical to the amino acid sequence of EgD5 reported herein over a length of 449 amino acids using a BLASTP search algorithm. More preferred amino acid fragments are at least about 70%-80% identical to the sequences herein, where those sequences that are at least about 80%-90% identical are particularly suitable and those sequences that are at least about 90%-95% identical are most preferred. Similarly, preferred EgD5 encoding nucleic acid sequences corresponding to the instant ORF are those encoding active proteins and which are at least about 70%-80% identical to the nucleic acid sequences of EgD5 reported herein, where those sequences that are at least about 80%-90% identical are particularly suitable and those sequences that are at least about 90%-95% identical are most preferred.

In alternate embodiments, the instant EgD5 desaturase sequence can be codon-optimized for expression in a particular host organism. As is well known in the art, this can be a useful means to further optimize the expression of the enzyme in the alternate host, since use of host-preferred codons can substantially enhance the expression of the foreign gene encoding the polypeptide. In general, host-preferred codons can be determined within a particular host species of interest by examining codon usage in proteins (preferably those expressed in the largest amount) and determining which codons are used with highest frequency. Then, the coding sequence for a polypeptide of interest having e.g., desaturase activity can be synthesized in whole or in part using the codons preferred in the host species.

In one preferred embodiment of the invention herein, EgD5 was codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia lipolytica. This was possible by first determining the Y. lipolytica codon usage profile (see PCT Publication No. WO 04/101757 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,125,672) and identifying those codons that were preferred. Then, for further optimization of gene expression in Y. lipolytica, the consensus sequence around the ‘ATG’ initiation codon was determined. This optimization resulted in modification of 196 bp of the 1350 bp coding region (14.5%) and optimization of 189 codons of the total 449 codons (42%). None of the modifications in the codon-optimized gene (“EgD5S”; SEQ ID NO:3) changed the amino acid sequence of the encoded protein (SEQ ID NO:2). As described in Example 11, the codon-optimized gene was 36% more efficient desaturating DGLA to ARA than the wildtype gene, when expressed in Y. lipolytica.

One skilled in the art would be able to use the teachings herein to create various other codon-optimized Δ5 desaturase proteins suitable for optimal expression in alternate hosts (i.e., other than Yarrowia lipolytica), based on the wildtype EgD5 sequence. Accordingly, the instant invention relates to any codon-optimized Δ5 desaturase protein that is derived from the wildtype EgD5 (i.e., encoded by SEQ ID NO:2). This includes, but is not limited to, the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:3, which encodes a synthetic Δ5 desaturase protein (i.e., EgD5S) that was codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia lipolytica.

Identification and Isolation of Homologs

Any of the instant desaturase sequences (i.e., EgD5, EgD5S) or portions thereof may be used to search for Δ5 desaturase homologs in the same or other bacterial, algal, fungal, euglenoid or plant species using sequence analysis software. In general, such computer software matches similar sequences by assigning degrees of homology to various substitutions, deletions, and other modifications.

Alternatively, any of the instant desaturase sequences or portions thereof may also be employed as hybridization reagents for the identification of Δ5 homologs. The basic components of a nucleic acid hybridization test include a probe, a sample suspected of containing the gene or gene fragment of interest and a specific hybridization method. Probes of the present invention are typically single-stranded nucleic acid sequences that are complementary to the nucleic acid sequences to be detected. Probes are “hybridizable” to the nucleic acid sequence to be detected. Although the probe length can vary from 5 bases to tens of thousands of bases, typically a probe length of about 15 bases to about 30 bases is suitable. Only part of the probe molecule need be complementary to the nucleic acid sequence to be detected. In addition, the complementarity between the probe and the target sequence need not be perfect. Hybridization does occur between imperfectly complementary molecules with the result that a certain fraction of the bases in the hybridized region are not paired with the proper complementary base.

Hybridization methods are well defined. Typically the probe and sample must be mixed under conditions that will permit nucleic acid hybridization. This involves contacting the probe and sample in the presence of an inorganic or organic salt under the proper concentration and temperature conditions. The probe and sample nucleic acids must be in contact for a long enough time that any possible hybridization between the probe and sample nucleic acid may occur. The concentration of probe or target in the mixture will determine the time necessary for hybridization to occur. The higher the probe or target concentration, the shorter the hybridization incubation time needed. Optionally, a chaotropic agent may be added (e.g., guanidinium chloride, guanidinium thiocyanate, sodium thiocyanate, lithium tetrachloroacetate, sodium perchlorate, rubidium tetrachloroacetate, potassium iodide, cesium trifluoroacetate). If desired, one can add formamide to the hybridization mixture, typically 30-50% (v/v).

Various hybridization solutions can be employed. Typically, these comprise from about 20 to 60% volume, preferably 30%, of a polar organic solvent. A common hybridization solution employs about 30-50% v/v formamide, about 0.15 to 1 M sodium chloride, about 0.05 to 0.1 M buffers (e.g., sodium citrate, Tris-HCl, PIPES or HEPES (pH range about 6-9)), about 0.05 to 0.2% detergent (e.g., sodium dodecylsulfate), or between 0.5-20 mM EDTA, FICOLL (Pharmacia Inc.) (about 300-500 kdal), polyvinylpyrrolidone (about 250-500 kdal), and serum albumin. Also included in the typical hybridization solution will be unlabeled carrier nucleic acids from about 0.1 to 5 mg/mL, fragmented nucleic DNA (e.g., calf thymus or salmon sperm DNA, or yeast RNA), and optionally from about 0.5 to 2% wt/vol glycine. Other additives may also be included, such as volume exclusion agents that include a variety of polar water-soluble or swellable agents (e.g., polyethylene glycol), anionic polymers (e.g., polyacrylate or polymethylacrylate) and anionic saccharidic polymers (e.g., dextran sulfate).

Nucleic acid hybridization is adaptable to a variety of assay formats. One of the most suitable is the sandwich assay format. The sandwich assay is particularly adaptable to hybridization under non-denaturing conditions. A primary component of a sandwich-type assay is a solid support. The solid support has adsorbed to it or covalently coupled to it immobilized nucleic acid probe that is unlabeled and complementary to one portion of the sequence.

In additional embodiments, any of the Δ5 desaturase nucleic acid fragments described herein (or any homologs identified thereof) may be used to isolate genes encoding homologous proteins from the same or other bacterial, algal, fungal, euglenoid or plant species. Isolation of homologous genes using sequence-dependent protocols is well known in the art. Examples of sequence-dependent protocols include, but are not limited to: 1.) methods of nucleic acid hybridization; 2.) methods of DNA and RNA amplification, as exemplified by various uses of nucleic acid amplification technologies [e.g., polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Mullis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202; ligase chain reaction (LCR), Tabor, S. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 82:1074 (1985); or strand displacement amplification (SDA), Walker, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 89:392 (1992)]; and 3.) methods of library construction and screening by complementation.

For example, genes encoding similar proteins or polypeptides to the Δ5 desaturases described herein could be isolated directly by using all or a portion of the instant nucleic acid fragments as DNA hybridization probes to screen libraries from e.g., any desired yeast or fungus using methodology well known to those skilled in the art (wherein those organisms producing ARA [or derivatives thereof] would be preferred). Specific oligonucleotide probes based upon the instant nucleic acid sequences can be designed and synthesized by methods known in the art (Maniatis, supra). Moreover, the entire sequences can be used directly to synthesize DNA probes by methods known to the skilled artisan (e.g., random primers DNA labeling, nick translation or end-labeling techniques), or RNA probes using available in vitro transcription systems. In addition, specific primers can be designed and used to amplify a part of (or full-length of) the instant sequences. The resulting amplification products can be labeled directly during amplification reactions or labeled after amplification reactions, and used as probes to isolate full-length DNA fragments under conditions of appropriate stringency.

Typically, in PCR-type amplification techniques, the primers have different sequences and are not complementary to each other. Depending on the desired test conditions, the sequences of the primers should be designed to provide for both efficient and faithful replication of the target nucleic acid. Methods of PCR primer design are common and well known in the art (Thein and Wallace, “The use of oligonucleotides as specific hybridization probes in the Diagnosis of Genetic Disorders”, in Human Genetic Diseases: A Practical Approach, K. E. Davis Ed., (1986) pp 33-50, IRL: Herndon, Va.; and Rychlik, W., In Methods in Molecular Biology, White, B. A. Ed., (1993) Vol. 15, pp 31-39, PCR Protocols: Current Methods and Applications. Humania: Totowa, N.J.).

Generally two short segments of the instant sequences may be used in PCR protocols to amplify longer nucleic acid fragments encoding homologous genes from DNA or RNA. PCR may also be performed on a library of cloned nucleic acid fragments wherein the sequence of one primer is derived from the instant nucleic acid fragments, and the sequence of the other primer takes advantage of the presence of the polyadenylic acid tracts to the 3′ end of the mRNA precursor encoding eukaryotic genes.

Alternatively, the second primer sequence may be based upon sequences derived from the cloning vector. For example, the skilled artisan can follow the RACE protocol (Frohman et al., Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 85:8998 (1988)) to generate cDNAs by using PCR to amplify copies of the region between a single point in the transcript and the 3′ or 5′ end. Primers oriented in the 3′ and 5′ directions can be designed from the instant sequences. Using commercially available 3′ RACE or 5′ RACE systems (Gibco/BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.), specific 3′ or 5′ cDNA fragments can be isolated (Ohara et al., Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 86:5673 (1989); Loh et al., Science, 243:217 (1989)).

In other embodiments, any of the Δ5 desaturase nucleic acid fragments described herein (or any homologs identified thereof) may be used for creation of new and improved fatty acid desaturases. As is well known in the art, in vitro mutagenesis and selection, chemical mutagenesis, “gene shuffling” methods or other means can be employed to obtain mutations of naturally occurring desaturase genes. Alternatively, improved fatty acids may be synthesized by domain swapping, wherein a functional domain from any of the Δ5 desaturase nucleic acid fragments described herein are exchanged with a functional domain in an alternate desaturase gene to thereby result in a novel protein.

Methods for Production of Various ω-3 and/or ω-6 Fatty Acids

It is expected that introduction of chimeric genes encoding the Δ5 desaturases described herein (i.e., EgD5, EgD5S or other mutant enzymes, codon-optimized enzymes or homologs thereof), under the control of the appropriate promoters, will result in increased production of ARA and/or EPA in the transformed host organism, respectively. As such, the present invention encompasses a method for the direct production of PUFAs comprising exposing a fatty acid substrate (i.e., DGLA or ETA) to the desaturase enzymes described herein (e.g., EgD5, EgD5S), such that the substrate is converted to the desired fatty acid product (i.e., ARA or EPA, respectively).

More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for the production of ARA in a host cell (e.g., oleaginous yeast), wherein the host cell comprises:

-   -   (i) an isolated nucleotide molecule encoding a Δ5 desaturase         polypeptide having at least 95% identity when compared to a         polypeptide having an amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID         NO:2, based on BLASTP algorithms; and,     -   (ii) a source of dihomo-γ-linoleic acid;         wherein the host cell is grown under conditions such that the Δ5         desaturase is expressed and the DGLA is converted to ARA, and         wherein the ARA is optionally recovered.

The person of skill in the art will recognize that the broad substrate range of the Δ5 desaturase may additionally allow for the use of the enzyme for the conversion of ETA to EPA. Accordingly the invention provides a method for the production of EPA, wherein the host cell comprises:

-   -   (i) an isolated nucleotide molecule encoding a Δ5 desaturase         polypeptide having at least 95% identity when compared to a         polypeptide having an amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID         NO:2, based on BLASTP algorithms; and,     -   (ii) a source of eicosatetraenoic acid;         wherein the host cell is grown under conditions such that the Δ5         desaturase is expressed and the ETA is converted to EPA, and         wherein the EPA is optionally recovered.

Alternatively, each Δ5 desaturase gene and its corresponding enzyme product described herein can be used indirectly for the production of ω-3 fatty acids (see U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0136519). Indirect production of ω-3/ω-6 PUFAs occurs wherein the fatty acid substrate is converted indirectly into the desired fatty acid product, via means of an intermediate step(s) or pathway intermediate(s). Thus, it is contemplated that the Δ5 desaturases described herein (e.g., EgD5, EgD5S or other mutant enzymes, codon-optimized enzymes or homologs thereof) may be expressed in conjunction with additional genes encoding enzymes of the PUFA biosynthetic pathway (e.g., Δ6 desaturases, C_(18/20) elongases, Δ17 desaturases, Δ15 desaturases, Δ9 desaturases, Δ12 desaturases, C_(14/16) elongases, C_(16/18) elongases, Δ9 elongases, Δ8 desaturases, Δ4 desaturases, C_(20/22) elongases) to result in higher levels of production of longer-chain ω-3 fatty acids (e.g., EPA, DPA and DHA). The particular genes included within a particular expression cassette will depend on the host cell (and its PUFA profile and/or desaturase/elongase profile), the availability of substrate and the desired end product(s).

In alternative embodiments, it may be useful to disrupt a host organism's native Δ5 desaturase, based on the complete sequences described herein, the complement of those complete sequences, substantial portions of those sequences, codon-optimized desaturases derived therefrom and those sequences that are substantially homologous thereto.

Expression Systems, Cassettes and Vectors

The genes and gene products of the instant sequences described herein may be expressed in heterologous host cells. Expression in recombinant hosts may be useful for the production of various PUFA pathway intermediates, or for the modulation of PUFA pathways already existing in the host for the synthesis of new products heretofore not possible using the host.

Expression systems and expression vectors containing regulatory sequences that direct high level expression of foreign proteins are well known to those skilled in the art. Any of these could be used to construct chimeric genes for production of any of the gene products of the instant sequences. These chimeric genes could then be introduced into appropriate host cells via transformation to provide high-level expression of the encoded enzymes.

Vectors or DNA cassettes useful for the transformation of suitable host cells are well known in the art. The specific choice of sequences present in the construct is dependent upon the desired expression products (supra), the nature of the host cell and the proposed means of separating transformed cells versus non-transformed cells. Typically, however, the vector or cassette contains sequences directing transcription and translation of the relevant gene(s), a selectable marker and sequences allowing autonomous replication or chromosomal integration. Suitable vectors comprise a region 5′ of the gene that controls transcriptional initiation (e.g., a promoter) and a region 3′ of the DNA fragment that controls transcriptional termination (i.e., a terminator). It is most preferred when both control regions are derived from genes from the transformed host cell, although it is to be understood that such control regions need not be derived from the genes native to the specific species chosen as a production host.

Initiation control regions or promoters which are useful to drive expression of the instant Δ5 desaturase ORFs in the desired host cell are numerous and familiar to those skilled in the art. Virtually any promoter capable of directing expression of these genes in the selected host cell is suitable for the present invention. Expression in a host cell can be accomplished in a transient or stable fashion. Transient expression can be accomplished by inducing the activity of a regulatable promoter operably linked to the gene of interest. Stable expression can be achieved by the use of a constitutive promoter operably linked to the gene of interest. As an example, when the host cell is yeast, transcriptional and translational regions functional in yeast cells are provided, particularly from the host species (e.g., see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/265,761, corresponding to PCT Publication No. WO 2006/052870 for preferred transcriptional initiation regulatory regions for use in Yarrowia lipolytica). Any one of a number of regulatory sequences can be used, depending upon whether constitutive or induced transcription is desired, the efficiency of the promoter in expressing the ORF of interest, the ease of construction and the like.

The termination region can be derived from the 3′ region of the gene from which the initiation region was obtained or from a different gene. A large number of termination regions are known and function satisfactorily in a variety of hosts (when utilized both in the same and different genera and species from where they were derived). The termination region usually is selected more as a matter of convenience rather than because of any particular property. Termination control regions may also be derived from various genes native to the preferred hosts. Optionally, a termination site may be unnecessary; however, it is most preferred if included.

As one of skill in the art is aware, merely inserting a gene into a cloning vector does not ensure that it will be successfully expressed at the level needed. In response to the need for a high expression rate, many specialized expression vectors have been created by manipulating a number of different genetic elements that control aspects of transcription, translation, protein stability, oxygen limitation, and secretion from the host cell. More specifically, some of the molecular features that have been manipulated to control gene expression include: 1.) the nature of the relevant transcriptional promoter and terminator sequences; 2.) the number of copies of the cloned gene and whether the gene is plasmid-borne or integrated into the genome of the host cell; 3.) the final cellular location of the synthesized foreign protein; 4.) the efficiency of translation and correct folding of the protein in the host organism; 5.) the intrinsic stability of the mRNA and protein of the cloned gene within the host cell; and, 6.) the codon usage within the cloned gene, such that its frequency approaches the frequency of preferred codon usage of the host cell. Each of these types of modifications are encompassed in the present invention, as means to further optimize expression of the Δ5 desaturases described herein.

Transformation of Host Cells

Once the DNA encoding a polypeptide suitable for expression in an appropriate host cell has been obtained (e.g., a chimeric gene comprising a promoter, ORF and terminator), it is placed in a plasmid vector capable of autonomous replication in the host cell, or it is directly integrated into the genome of the host cell. Integration of expression cassettes can occur randomly within the host genome or can be targeted through the use of constructs containing regions of homology with the host genome sufficient to target recombination with the host locus. Where constructs are targeted to an endogenous locus, all or some of the transcriptional and translational regulatory regions can be provided by the endogenous locus.

Where two or more genes are expressed from separate replicating vectors, it is desirable that each vector has a different means of selection and should lack homology to the other construct(s) to maintain stable expression and prevent reassortment of elements among constructs. Judicious choice of regulatory regions, selection means and method of propagation of the introduced construct(s) can be experimentally determined so that all introduced genes are expressed at the necessary levels to provide for synthesis of the desired products.

Constructs comprising the gene of interest may be introduced into a host cell by any standard technique. These techniques include transformation (e.g., lithium acetate transformation [Methods in Enzymology, 194:186-187 (1991)]), protoplast fusion, biolistic impact, electroporation, microinjection, or any other method that introduces the gene of interest into the host cell.

For convenience, a host cell that has been manipulated by any method to take up a DNA sequence (e.g., an expression cassette) will be referred to as “transformed” or “recombinant” herein. The transformed host will have at least one copy of the expression construct and may have two or more, depending upon whether the gene is integrated into the genome, amplified, or is present on an extrachromosomal element having multiple copy numbers. The transformed host cell can be identified by various selection techniques, as described in PCT Publications No. WO 2004/101757 and No. WO 2005/003310.

Following transformation, substrates suitable for the instant Δ5 desaturases (and, optionally other PUFA enzymes that are co-expressed within the host cell) may be produced by the host either naturally or transgenically, or they may be provided exogenously.

Metabolic Engineering of ω-3 and/or ω-6 Fatty Acid Biosynthesis

Knowledge of the sequences of the present Δ5 desaturases will be useful for manipulating ω-3 and/or ω-6 fatty acid biosynthesis in various host cells. This may require metabolic engineering directly within the PUFA biosynthetic pathway or additional manipulation of pathways that contribute carbon to the PUFA biosynthetic pathway. Methods useful for up-regulating desirable biochemical pathways and down-regulating undesirable biochemical pathways are well known to those skilled in the art. For example, biochemical pathways competing with the ω-3 and/or ω-6 fatty acid biosynthetic pathways for energy or carbon, or native PUFA biosynthetic pathway enzymes that interfere with production of a particular PUFA end-product, may be eliminated by gene disruption or down-regulated by other means (e.g., antisense mRNA).

Detailed discussion of manipulations within the PUFA biosynthetic pathway as a means to increase ARA, EPA or DHA (and associated techniques thereof) are presented in PCT Publication No. WO 2006/055322 [U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006-0094092-A1], PCT Publication No. WO 2006/052870 [U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006-0115881-A1] and PCT Publication No. WO 2006/052871 [U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006-0110806-A1], respectively, as are desirable manipulations in the TAG biosynthetic pathway and the TAG degradation pathway (and associated techniques thereof).

Preferred Hosts for Recombinant Expression of Δ5 Desaturases

Host cells for expression of the instant genes and nucleic acid fragments may include hosts that grow on a variety of feedstocks, including simple or complex carbohydrates, fatty acids, organic acids, oils and alcohols, and/or hydrocarbons over a wide range of temperature and pH values. Based on the needs of the Applicants' Assignee, the genes described in the instant invention were initially isolated for expression in an oleaginous yeast (and in particular Yarrowia lipolytica); however, it is contemplated that because transcription, translation and the protein biosynthetic apparatus are highly conserved, any bacteria, yeast, algae, euglenoid and/or fungus will be a suitable host for expression of the present nucleic acid fragments.

Preferred hosts are oleaginous organisms, such as oleaginous yeast. These oleaginous organisms are naturally capable of oil synthesis and accumulation, wherein the oil can comprise greater than about 25% of the cellular dry weight, more preferably greater than about 30% of the cellular dry weight, and most preferably greater than about 40% of the cellular dry weight. Genera typically identified as oleaginous yeast include, but are not limited to: Yarrowia, Candida, Rhodotorula, Rhodosporidium, Cryptococcus, Trichosporon and Lipomyces. More specifically, illustrative oil-synthesizing yeast include: Rhodosporidium toruloides, Lipomyces starkeyii, L. lipoferus, Candida revkaufi, C. pulcherrima, C. tropicalis, C. utilis, Trichosporon pullans, T. cutaneum, Rhodotorula glutinus, R. graminis and Yarrowia lipolytica (formerly classified as Candida lipolytica).

Most preferred is the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica; and, in a further embodiment, most preferred are the Y. lipolytica strains designated as ATCC #76982, ATCC #20362, ATCC #8862, ATCC #18944 and/or LGAM S(7)1 (Papanikolaou S., and Aggelis G., Bioresour. Technol., 82(1):43-9 (2002)).

Specific teachings applicable for transformation of oleaginous yeasts (i.e., Yarrowia lipolytica) include U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,741 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,764 (incorporated herein by reference) and Chen, D. C. et al. (Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 48(2):232-235 (1997)). Specific teachings applicable for engineering ARA, EPA and DHA in Y. lipolytica are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/264,784, Ser. No. 11/265,761 and Ser. No. 11/264,737, respectively. Detailed means for the synthesis and transformation of expression vectors comprising Δ5 desaturases in oleaginous yeast (i.e., Yarrowia lipolytica) are provided in PCT Publications No. WO 2004/101757 and No. WO 2006/052870. The preferred method of expressing genes in this yeast is by integration of linear DNA into the genome of the host; and, integration into multiple locations within the genome can be particularly useful when high level expression of genes are desired [e.g., in the Ura3 locus (GenBank Accession No. AJ306421), the Leu2 gene locus (GenBank Accession No. AF260230), the Lys5 gene locus (GenBank Accession No. M34929), the Aco2 gene locus (GenBank Accession No. AJ001300), the Pox3 gene locus (Pox3: GenBank Accession No. XP_(—)503244; or, Aco3: GenBank Accession No. AJ001301), the Δ12 desaturase gene locus (PCT Publication No. WO 2004/104167), the Lip1 gene locus (GenBank Accession No. Z50020) and/or the Lip2 gene locus (GenBank Accession No. AJ012632)].

Preferred selection methods for use in Yarrowia lipolytica are resistance to kanamycin, hygromycin and the amino glycoside G418, as well as ability to grow on media lacking uracil, leucine, lysine, tryptophan or histidine. In alternate embodiments, 5-fluoroorotic acid (5-fluorouracil-6-carboxylic acid monohydrate; “5-FOA”) is used for selection of yeast Ura⁻ mutants. The compound is toxic to yeast cells that possess a functioning URΔ3 gene encoding orotidine 5′-monophosphate decarboxylase (OMP decarboxylase); thus, based on this toxicity, 5-FOA is especially useful for the selection and identification of Ura⁻ mutant yeast strains (Bartel, P. L. and Fields, S., Yeast 2-Hybrid System, Oxford University: New York, v. 7, pp 109-147, 1997).

Other preferred microbial hosts include oleaginous bacteria, algae, euglenoids and other fungi; and, within this broad group of microbial hosts, of particular interest are microorganisms that synthesize ω-3/ω-6 fatty acids. Thus, for example, transformation of Mortierella alpina (which is commercially used for production of ARA) with any of the present Δ5 desaturase genes under the control of inducible or regulated promoters could yield a transformant organism capable of synthesizing increased quantities of ARA. The method of transformation of M. alpina is described by Mackenzie et al. (Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 66:4655 (2000)). Similarly, methods for transformation of Thraustochytriales microorganisms are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,001,772.

Irrespective of the host selected for expression of the Δ5 desaturases described herein, multiple transformants must be screened in order to obtain a strain displaying the desired expression level and pattern. Such screening may be accomplished by Southern analysis of DNA blots (Southern, J. Mol. Biol., 98:503 (1975)), Northern analysis of mRNA expression (Kroczek, J. Chromatogr. Biomed. Appl., 618(1-2):133-145 (1993)), Western and/or Elisa analyses of protein expression, phenotypic analysis or GC analysis of the PUFA products.

Fermentation Processes for Omega Fatty Acid Production

The transformed host cell is grown under conditions that optimize expression of chimeric desaturase genes and produce the greatest and most economical yield of desired PUFAs. In general, media conditions that may be optimized include the type and amount of carbon source, the type and amount of nitrogen source, the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, the amount of different mineral ions, the oxygen level, growth temperature, pH, length of the biomass production phase, length of the oil accumulation phase and the time and method of cell harvest. Yarrowia lipolytica are generally grown in complex media (e.g., yeast extract-peptone-dextrose broth (YPD)) or a defined minimal media that lacks a component necessary for growth and thereby forces selection of the desired expression cassettes (e.g., Yeast Nitrogen Base (DIFCO Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.)).

Fermentation media in the present invention must contain a suitable carbon source. Suitable carbon sources are taught in PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101757. Although it is contemplated that the source of carbon utilized in the present invention may encompass a wide variety of carbon-containing sources, preferred carbon sources are sugars, glycerol, and/or fatty acids. Most preferred is glucose and/or fatty acids containing between 10-22 carbons.

Nitrogen may be supplied from an inorganic (e.g., (NH₄)₂SO₄) or organic (e.g., urea or glutamate) source. In addition to appropriate carbon and nitrogen sources, the fermentation media must also contain suitable minerals, salts, cofactors, buffers, vitamins and other components known to those skilled in the art suitable for the growth of the oleaginous host and promotion of the enzymatic pathways necessary for PUFA production. Particular attention is given to several metal ions (e.g., Fe⁺², Cu⁺², Mn⁺², Co⁺², Zn⁺², Mg⁺²) that promote synthesis of lipids and PUFAs (Nakahara, T. et al., Ind. Appl. Single Cell Oils, D. J. Kyle and R. Colin, eds. pp 61-97 (1992)).

Preferred growth media in the present invention are common commercially prepared media, such as Yeast Nitrogen Base (DIFCO Laboratories). Other defined or synthetic growth media may also be used and the appropriate medium for growth of the transformant host cells will be known by one skilled in the art of microbiology or fermentation science. A suitable pH range for the fermentation is typically between about pH 4.0 to pH 8.0, wherein pH 5.5 to pH 7.5 is preferred as the range for the initial growth conditions. The fermentation may be conducted under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, wherein microaerobic conditions are preferred.

Typically, accumulation of high levels of PUFAs in oleaginous yeast cells requires a two-stage process, since the metabolic state must be “balanced” between growth and synthesis/storage of fats. Thus, most preferably, a two-stage fermentation process is necessary for the production of PUFAs in Yarrowia lipolytica. This approach is described in PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101757, as are various suitable fermentation process designs (i.e., batch, fed-batch and continuous) and considerations during growth.

Purification and Processing of PUFA Oils

PUFAs may be found in the host microorganisms as free fatty acids or in esterified forms such as acylglycerols, phospholipids, sulfolipids or glycolipids, and may be extracted from the host cells through a variety of means well-known in the art. One review of extraction techniques, quality analysis and acceptability standards for yeast lipids is that of Z. Jacobs (Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 12(5/6):463-491 (1992)). A brief review of downstream processing is also available by A. Singh and O. Ward (Adv. Appl. Microbiol., 45:271-312 (1997)).

In general, means for the purification of PUFAs may include extraction with organic solvents, sonication, supercritical fluid extraction (e.g., using carbon dioxide), saponification and physical means such as presses, or combinations thereof. One is referred to the teachings of PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101757 for additional details.

Oils for Use in Foodstuffs, Health Food Products, Pharmaceuticals and Animal Feeds

The market place currently supports a large variety of food and feed products, incorporating ω-3 and/or ω-6 fatty acids (particularly ARA, EPA and DHA). It is contemplated that the oils of the invention comprising long-chain PUFAs will function in food and feed products to impart the health benefits of current formulations. More specifically, oils of the invention containing ω-3 and/or ω-6 fatty acids will be suitable for use in a variety of food and feed products including, but not limited to: food analogs, meat products, cereal products, baked foods, snack foods and dairy products (see U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0094092 for details).

Additionally the present oils may be used in formulations to impart health benefits in medical foods including medical nutritionals, dietary supplements, infant formula as well as pharmaceutical products. One of skill in the art of food processing and food formulation will understand how the amount and composition of the present oils may be added to the food or feed product. Such an amount will be referred to herein as an “effective” amount and will depend on the food or feed product, the diet that the product is intended to supplement or the medical condition that the medical food or medical nutritional is intended to correct or treat.

EXAMPLES

The present invention is further defined in the following Examples. It should be understood that these Examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only. From the above discussion and these Examples, one skilled in the art can ascertain the essential characteristics of this invention, and without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, can make various changes and modifications of the invention to adapt it to various usages and conditions.

General Methods

Standard recombinant DNA and molecular cloning techniques used in the Examples are well known in the art and are described by: 1.) Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1989) (Maniatis); 2.) T. J. Silhavy, M. L. Bennan, and L. W. Enquist, Experiments with Gene Fusions; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1984); and 3.) Ausubel, F. M. et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, published by Greene Publishing Assoc. and Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken, N.J. (1987).

Materials and methods suitable for the maintenance and growth of microbial cultures are well known in the art. Techniques suitable for use in the following examples may be found as set out in Manual of Methods for General Bacteriology (Phillipp Gerhardt, R. G. E. Murray, Ralph N. Costilow, Eugene W. Nester, Willis A. Wood, Noel R. Krieg and G. Briggs Phillips, Eds), American Society for Microbiology: Washington, D.C. (1994)); or by Thomas D. Brock in Biotechnology: A Textbook of Industrial Microbiology, 2nd ed., Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, Mass. (1989). All reagents, restriction enzymes and materials used for the growth and maintenance of microbial cells were obtained from Aldrich Chemicals (Milwaukee, Wis.), DIFCO Laboratories (Detroit, Mich.), GIBCO/BRL (Gaithersburg, Md.), or Sigma Chemical Company (St. Louis, Mo.), unless otherwise specified. E. coli (XL1-Blue) competent cells were purchased from the Stratagene Company (San Diego, Calif.). E. coli strains were typically grown at 37° C. on Luria Bertani (LB) plates.

General molecular cloning was performed according to standard methods (Sambrook et al., supra). DNA sequence was generated on an ABI Automatic sequencer using dye terminator technology (U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,860; EP 272,007) using a combination of vector and insert-specific primers. Sequence editing was performed in Sequencher (Gene Codes Corporation, Ann Arbor, Mich.). All sequences represent coverage at least two times in both directions. Comparisons of genetic sequences were accomplished using DNASTAR software (DNASTAR Inc., Madison, Wis.).

The meaning of abbreviations is as follows: “sec” means second(s), “min” means minute(s), “h” means hour(s), “d” means day(s), “μL” means microliter(s), “mL” means milliliter(s), “L” means liter(s), “μM” means micromolar, “mM” means millimolar, “M” means molar, “mmol” means millimole(s), “μmole” mean micromole(s), “g” means gram(s), “μg” means microgram(s), “ng” means nanogram(s), “U” means unit(s), “bp” means base pair(s) and “kB” means kilobase(s).

Transformation and Cultivation of Yarrowia lipolytica

Yarrowia lipolytica strain ATCC #20362 was purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (Rockville, Md.). Y. lipolytica strains were usually grown at 28° C. on YPD agar (1% yeast extract, 2% bactopeptone, 2% glucose, 2% agar).

Transformation of Y. lipolytica was performed according to the method of Chen, D. C. et al. (Appl. Microbiol Biotechnol., 48(2):232-235 (1997)), unless otherwise noted. Briefly, Yarrowia was streaked onto a YPD plate and grown at 30° C. for approximately 18 hr. Several large loopfuls of cells were scraped from the plate and resuspended in 1 mL of transformation buffer containing: 2.25 mL of 50% PEG, average MW 3350; 0.125 mL of 2 M Li acetate, pH 6.0; 0.125 mL of 2 M DTT; and 50 μg sheared salmon sperm DNA. Then, approximately 500 ng of linearized plasmid DNA was incubated in 100 μl of resuspended cells, and maintained at 39° C. for 1 hr with vortex mixing at 15 min intervals. The cells were plated onto selection media plates and maintained at 30° C. for 2 to 3 days.

For selection of transformants, minimal medium (“MM”) was generally used; the composition of MM is as follows: 0.17% yeast nitrogen base (DIFCO Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.) without ammonium sulfate or amino acids, 2% glucose, 0.1% proline, pH 6.1). Supplements of uracil were added as appropriate to a final concentration of 0.01% (thereby producing “MMU” selection media, prepared with 20 g/L agar).

Alternatively, transformants were selected on 5-fluoroorotic acid (“FOA”; also 5-fluorouracil-6-carboxylic acid monohydrate) selection media, comprising: 0.17% yeast nitrogen base (DIFCO Laboratories) without ammonium sulfate or amino acids, 2% glucose, 0.1% proline, 75 mg/L uracil, 75 mg/L uridine, 900 mg/L FOA (Zymo Research Corp., Orange, Calif.) and 20 g/L agar.

Fatty Acid Analysis of Yarrowia lipolytica

For fatty acid analysis, cells were collected by centrifugation and lipids were extracted as described in Bligh, E. G. & Dyer, W. J. (Can. J. Biochem. Physiol., 37:911-917 (1959)). Fatty acid methyl esters were prepared by transesterification of the lipid extract with sodium methoxide (Roughan, G., and Nishida I., Arch Biochem Biophys., 276(1):38-46 (1990)) and subsequently analyzed with a Hewlett-Packard 6890 GC fitted with a 30-m×0.25 mm (i.d.) HP-INNOWAX (Hewlett-Packard) column. The oven temperature was from 170° C. (25 min hold) to 185° C. at 3.5° C/min.

For direct base transesterification, Yarrowia culture (3 mL) was harvested, washed once in distilled water, and dried under vacuum in a Speed-Vac for 5-10 min. Sodium methoxide (100 μl of 1%) was added to the sample, and then the sample was vortexed and rocked for 20 min. After adding 3 drops of 1 M NaCl and 400 μl hexane, the sample was vortexed and spun. The upper layer was removed and analyzed by GC as described above.

Example 1 Euqlena gracilis Growth Conditions, Lipid Profile and mRNA Isolation

Euglena gracilis was obtained from Dr. Richard Triemer's lab at Michigan State University (East Lansing, Mich.). From 10 mL of actively growing culture, a 1 mL aliquot was transferred into 250 mL of Euglena gracilis (Eg) Medium in a 500 mL glass bottle. Eg medium was made by combining 1 g of sodium acetate, 1 g of beef extract (Catalog #U126-01, Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.), 2 g of Bacto® tryptone (Catalog #0123-17-3, Difco Laboratories) and 2 g of Bacto® yeast extract (Catalog #0127-17-9, Difco Laboratories) in 970 mL of water. After filter sterilizing, 30 mL of soil-water supernatant (Catalog #15-3790, Carolina Biological Supply Co., Burlington, N.C.) was aseptically added to give the final Eg medium. Euglena gracilis cultures were grown at 23° C. with a 16 h light, 8 h dark cycle for 2 weeks with no agitation.

After 2 weeks, 10 mL of culture was removed for lipid analysis and centrifuged at 1,800×g for 5 min. The pellet was washed once with water and re-centrifuged. The resulting pellet was dried for 5 min under vacuum, resuspended in 100 μL of trimethylsulfonium hydroxide (TMSH) and incubated at room temperature for 15 min with shaking. After this, 0.5 mL of hexane was added and the vials were incubated for 15 min at room temperature with shaking. Fatty acid methyl esters (5 μL injected from hexane layer) were separated and quantified using a Hewlett-Packard 6890 Gas Chromatograph fitted with an Omegawax 320 fused silica capillary column (Catalog #24152, Supelco Inc., Bellefonte, Pa.). The oven temperature was programmed to hold at 220° C. for 2.7 min, increase to 240° C. at 20° C./min and then hold for an additional 2.3 min. Carrier gas was supplied by a Whatman hydrogen generator. Retention times were compared to those for methyl esters of standards commercially available (Catalog #U-99-A, Nu-Chek Prep, Inc., Elysian, Minn.) and the resulting chromatogram is shown in FIG. 2.

The remaining 2 week culture (240 mL) was pelleted by centrifugation at 1,800×g for 10 min, washed once with water and re-centrifuged. Total RNA was extracted from the resulting pellet using the RNA STAT-60Tm reagent (TEL-TEST, Inc., Friendswood, Tex.) and following the manufacturer's protocol provided (use 5 mL of reagent, dissolved RNA in 0.5 mL of water). In this way, 1 mg of total RNA (2 mg/mL) was obtained from the pellet. The mRNA was isolated from 1 mg of total RNA using the mRNA Purification Kit (Amersham Biosciences, Piscataway, N.J.) following the manufacturer's protocol provided. In this way, 85 μg of mRNA was obtained.

Example 2 Euglena gracilis cDNA Synthesis

cDNA was synthesized directly from the Euglena gracilis mRNA as follows. Specifically, the mRNA was primered with adapter primer AP (SEQ ID NO:65) from Invitrogen's 3′-RACE kit (Carlsbad, Calif.), in the presence of the Smart IV oligonucleotide (SEQ ID NO:66) from the BD-Clontech Creator™ Smart™ cDNA library kit (Mississauga, ON, Canada). The reverse transcription was done with Superscript II reverse transcriptase from the 3′-RACE kit according to the protocol of the Creator™ Smart™ cDNA library kit.

The 1^(st) strand cDNA synthesis mixture was used as template for PCR amplification, using AP as the 3′ primer and CDSIII 5′ primer (SEQ ID NO:36) as the 5′ primer (supplied with the BD-Clontech Creator™ Smart™ cDNA library kit). Amplification was carried out with Clontech Advantage cDNA polymerase mix at 94° C. for 30 sec, followed by 20 cycles of 94° C. for 10 sec and 68° C. for 6 min. A final extension at 68° C. for 7 min was performed.

Example 3 Isolation of a Portion of the Coding Region of the Euqlena gracilis Δ5 Desaturase Gene

The present Example describes the identification of a portion of the Euglena gracilis gene encoding Δ5 desaturase (designated herein as “EgD5” (SEQ ID NOs:1 and 2)), by use of primers derived from conserved regions of other known Δ5 and Δ8 desaturase sequences.

Various considerations were made when evaluating which desaturases might enable design of degenerate primers suitable to isolate the Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase. Specifically, the Applicants knew that only Δ5, Δ6 and Δ8 desaturase sequences comprise a conserved ‘HPGG’ motif at their N-terminus (wherein the ‘HPGG’ domain is part of the well-known cytochrome B5 domain); in contrast, Δ9 desaturases possess a ‘HPGG’ motif of the cytochrome B5 domain at their C-terminus, while both Δ17 and Δ12 desaturases lack the cytochrome B5 domain. It was assumed that a Δ9 elongase/Δ8 desaturase pathway operated in Euglena gracilis; thus, among the desaturases sharing the N-terminal conserved ‘HPGG’ motif, only Δ5 and Δ8 desaturases were expected within the organism. Finally, although only a few Δ8 desaturase sequences are known, numerous Δ5 desaturase are publicly available. The Applicants selected those Δ5 desaturase sequences that possessed lower homology to “traditional” Δ5 desaturase genes and that also shared high homology to one another.

Based on the above, the four Δ5 desaturases and two Δ8 desaturases shown below in Table 3 were aligned, using the method of Clustal W (slow, accurate, Gonnet option; Thompson et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 22:4673-4680 (1994)) of the MegAlign™ program of DNASTAR software.

TABLE 3 Δ5 And Δ8 Desaturases Aligned To Identify Regions Of Conserved Amino Acids Desat- SEQ ID urase Organism Reference NO: Δ5 Pythium GenBank Accession No. 12 irregulare AAL13311 Δ5 Phytophthora GenBank Accession No. 13 megasperma CAD53323 Δ5 Phaeodactylum GenBank Accession No. 14 tricornutum AAL92562 Δ5 Dictyostelium GenBank Accession No. 15 discoideum XP_640331 Δ8 Euglena gracilis PCT Publications No. WO 16 2006/012325 and No. WO 2006/012326 Δ8 Pavlova lutheri Example 12 (infra) 18

FIG. 3 shows a portion of the resulting alignment, containing several stretches of conserved amino acid sequence among the 6 different organisms. Based on this alignment, two sets of degenerate oligonucleotides were designed to amplify a portion of the coding region of the Δ5 desaturase gene from Euglena gracilis, corresponding to the regions of FIG. 3 that are labeled as “Conserved Region 1” and “Conserved Region 2”. Specifically, the conserved amino acid sequence GHH(I/V)YTN (SEQ ID NO:19) was designed to correspond to Conserved Region 1, while the conserved amino acid sequence N(Y/F)Q(V/I)EHH (SEQ ID NO:20) was designed to correspond to Conserved Region 2. In order to reduce the degeneracy of the oligonucleotides, 4 sets of oligonucleotides (i.e., 5-1A, 5-1B, 5-1C and 5-1D) were designed to encode Conserved Region 1; and, 4 sets of oligonucleotides (i.e., 5-5AR, 5-5BR, 5-5CR and 5-5DR) were designed to encode the anti-sense strand of Conserved Region 2.

TABLE 4 Degenerate Oligonucleotides Used To Amplify The Δ5 Desaturase Gene From Euglena gracilis Oligonucleotide Name Sequence SEQ ID NO 5-1A GGHCAYCAYRTBTAYACAAA SEQ ID NO: 27 5-1B GGHCAYCAYRTBTAYACCAA SEQ ID NO: 28 5-1C GGHCAYCAYRTBTAYACGAA SEQ ID NO: 29 5-1D GGHCAYCAYRTBTAYACTAA SEQ ID NO: 30 5-5AR TGRTGVACAAYYTGRWARTT SEQ ID NO: 31 5-5BR TGRTGVACTAYYTGRWARTT SEQ ID NO: 32 5-5CR TGRTGVACCAYYTGRWARTT SEQ ID NO: 33 5-5DR TGRTGVACGAYYTGRWARTT SEQ ID NO: 34 [Note: The nucleic acid degeneracy code used for SEQ ID NOs: 27 to 34 was as follows: R = A/G; Y = C/T; W = A/T; B = G/T/C; V = G/A/C; and H = A/C/T.]

Based on the full-length sequences of the Δ5 sequences of Table 3, it was hypothesized that the Euglena gracilis Δ5 gene fragment amplified as described above would be about 600 bp in length (lacking about 210 amino acids at its N-terminal and 70 amino acids at its C-terminal).

A total of sixteen different PCR amplifications were conducted, as all combinations of the primers were tested (i.e., primer 5-1A was used with each of 5-5AR, 5-5BR, 5-5CR and 5-5DR, individually; similarly, primer 5-1B was used with each of 5-5AR, 5-5BR, 5-5CR and 5-5DR; etc.). The PCR amplifications were carried out in a 50 μl total volume comprising: PCR buffer (containing 10 mM KCl, 10 mM (NH₄)₂SO₄, 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.75), 2 mM MgSO₄, 0.1% Triton X-100), 100 μg/mL BSA (final concentration), 200 μM each deoxyribonucleotide triphosphate, 10 pmole of each primer, 10 ng cDNA of E. gracilis and 1 μl of Taq DNA polymerase (Epicentre Technologies, Madison, Wis.). The thermocycler conditions were set for 35 cycles at 95° C. for 1 min, 56° C. for 30 sec and 72° C. for 1 min, followed by a final extension at 72° C. for 10 min.

The PCR products were purified using a Qiagen PCR purification kit (Valencia, Calif.). One fragment of the approximate expected size was then further purified following gel electrophoresis in 1% (w/v) agarose and then cloned into the pGEM-T-easy vector (Promega, Madison, Wis.). The ligated DNA was used to transform cells of E. coli DH10B and transformants were selected on LB (1% bacto-tryptone, 0.5% bacto-yeast extract and 1% NaCl) agar containing ampicillin (100 μg/mL). Analysis of the plasmid DNA from a group of 12 transformants confirmed the presence of the insert with the expected size (plasmids were designated as “pT-F10-1”, “pT-F10-2”, “pT-F10-3”, etc. to “pT-F10-12”).

Sequence analyses showed that pT-F10-1 contained a 590 bp fragment (SEQ ID NO:4), which encoded 196 amino acids (SEQ ID NO:5) (including amino acids that corresponded to Conserved Region 1 and 2). Identity of the Euglena sequence was determined by conducting BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool; Altschul, S. F., et al., J. Mol. Biol., 215:403-410 (1993)) searches for similarity to sequences contained in the BLAST “nr” database (comprising all non-redundant GenBank CDS translations, sequences derived from the 3-dimensional structure Brookhaven Protein Data Bank, the SWISS-PROT protein sequence database, EMBL and DDBJ databases). The sequence was analyzed for similarity to all publicly available DNA sequences contained in the “nr” database using the BLASTN algorithm provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). SEQ ID NO:4 was compared for similarity to all publicly available protein sequences contained in the “nr” database, using the BLASTX algorithm (Gish, W. and States, D. J., Nature Genetics, 3:266-272 (1993)) provided by the NCBI.

The results of the BLASTX comparison summarizing the sequence to which SEQ ID NO:4 has the most similarity are reported according to the % identity, % similarity and Expectation value. “% Identity” is defined as the percentage of amino acids that are identical between the two proteins. “% Similarity” is defined as the percentage of amino acids that are identical or conserved between the two proteins. “Expectation value” estimates the statistical significance of the match, specifying the number of matches, with a given score, that are expected in a search of a database of this size absolutely by chance. Thus, the translated amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:4 (i.e., SEQ ID NO:5) had 38% identity and 53% similarity with the amino acid sequence of the Δ8-sphingolipid desaturase of Thalassiosira pseudonana (GenBank Accession No. AAX14502; SEQ ID NO:21), with an Expectation value of 5E-28; additionally, the partial fragment of SEQ ID NO:4 had 37% identity and 52% similarity with the Δ5 fatty acid desaturase of Phaeodactylum tricornutum (GenBank Accession No. AAL92562; SEQ ID NO:14), with an Expectation value of 7E-28.

Example 4 Isolation of the 5° Coding Region of the Euglena gracilis Δ5 Desaturase Gene

To isolate the N-terminal portion of the putative Δ5 desaturase identified in Example 3, a modified 5′ RACE technique based on RACE protocols from two different companies (i.e., Invitrogen and BD-Clontech) was utilized.

Briefly, the double-stranded cDNA of Euglena gracilis (Example 2) was used as the template in a 5′ RACE experiment, comprising two separate rounds of PCR amplification. In the first round of PCR amplification, the oligonucleotide primers consisted of a gene specific oligonucleotide (i.e., ODMW480; SEQ ID NO:35) and the generic oligonucleotide CDSIII 5′ primer (SEQ ID NO:36) from the BD-Clontech Creator™ Smart™ cDNA library kit. The PCR amplifications were carried out in a 50 μl total volume, comprising: 25 μl of LA Taq™ pre-mix (TaKaRa Bio Inc., Otsu, Shiga, 520-2193, Japan), 10 pmole of each primer and 1 μl of Taq DNA polymerase (Epicentre Technologies, Madison, WI). The thermocycler conditions were set for 35 cycles at 95° C. for 1 min, 56° C. for 30 sec and 72° C. for 1 min, followed by a final extension at 72° C. for 10 min.

The second round of PCR amplification used 1 μl of the product from the first round PCR reaction as template. Primers consisted of a gene specific oligonucleotide (i.e., ODMW479; SEQ ID NO:37) and the generic oligonucleotide DNR CDS 5′ (SEQ ID NO:38), supplied with BD-Clontech's Creator™ Smart™ cDNA library kit. Amplification was conducted as described above.

The products of the second round PCR reaction were electrophoresed in 1% (w/v) agarose. Products between 400 bp and 800 bp were then purified from the gel and cloned into the pGEM-T-easy vector (Promega, Madison, Wis.). The ligated DNA was used to transform E. coli DH10B and transformants were selected on LB agar containing ampicillin (100 μg/mL).

Analysis of the plasmid DNA from one transformant comprising the 5′ region of the putative Δ5 desaturase gene confirmed the presence of the expected plasmid, designated pT-EgD5-5° C.2. Sequence analyses showed that pT-EgD5-5′C2 contained a fragment of 797 bp (SEQ ID NO:6), which over-lapped with 238 bp from the 5′ end of the 590 bp fragment of pT-F10-1 (Example 3, SEQ ID NO:4) and additionally provided 559 bp of 5′ upstream sequence (SEQ ID NO:7) (FIG. 4). The sequence of pT-EgD5-5′C2 also corrected the sequence corresponding to Conserved Region 1, resulting from use of a degenerate oligonucleotide for initial PCR amplification of the 590 bp fragment in pT-F10-1 (Example 3). However, there was no translation initiation codon in the extended 797 bp fragment of SEQ ID NO:6.

A second round of the modified 5′ RACE was carried out as described above, except that oligonucleotides YL791 (SEQ ID NO:39) and YL792 (SEQ ID NO:40) were used as gene-specific primers. Products between 200 bp and 400 bp were then purified from a gel and cloned into the pGEM-T-easy vector (Promega, Madison, Wis.). The ligated DNA was transformed into E. coli DH10B and transformants were selected on LB agar containing ampicillin (100 μg/mL).

Analysis of the plasmid DNA from one transformant comprising the 5′ region of the putative Δ5 desaturase gene confirmed the presence of the expected plasmid, designated pT-EgD5-5′2^(nd). Sequence analyses showed that pT-EgD5-5′2^(nd) contained a fragment of 273 bp (SEQ ID NO:8), which over-lapped with 253 bp of the 5′ end of the DNA fragment in pT-EgD5-5′C2 described above and additionally provided 20 bp of 5′ upstream sequence (SEQ ID NO:9). Seventeen (17) bp of the 20 bp encoded the N-terminal portion of the putative Δ5 desaturase gene, including the translation initiation codon, thus providing the complete 5′ sequence of the gene.

Example 5 Isolation of the 3° Coding Region of the Euqlena gracilis Δ5 Desaturase Gene

To isolate the C-terminal portion of the putative Δ5 desaturase identified in Example 3, a 3′ RACE technique was utilized. The methodology was described above in Example 4; however, the primers used on both the first and second round of PCR amplification were as shown below in Table 5.

TABLE 5 Oligonucleotide Primers Used For 3′ RACE PCR Am- Gene Specific Generic plification Oligonucleotide Oligonucleotide 1^(st) Round ODMW469 (SEQ ID AUAP (SEQ ID NO: 42) NO: 41) 2^(nd) Round YL470 (SEQ ID AUAP (SEQ ID NO: 42) NO: 43) * Primer AUAP was supplied in Invitrogen's 3′-RACE kit (Carlsbad, CA)

Following isolation and purification of products (i.e., 400-800 bp), the fragments were cloned into the pGEM-T-easy vector (Promega) and transformed into E. coli DH10B, as in Example 4.

Analysis of the plasmid DNA from one transformant comprising the 3′ region of the Δ5 desaturase gene confirmed the presence of the expected plasmid, designated pT-EgD5-3′. Sequence analyses showed that pT-EgD5-3′ contained a fragment of 728 bp (SEQ ID NO:10), which over-lapped with 264 bp from the 3′ end of the 590 bp fragment of pT-F10-1 (Example 3, SEQ ID NO:4) and provided 464 bp of additional 3′ downstream sequence (SEQ ID NO:11). The first 184 bp of the 464 bp fragment included within pT-EgD5-3′ encoded the C-terminal coding region (including the translation stop codon) of the putative Δ5 desaturase gene. The sequence of pT-EgD5-3′ also corrected the sequence corresponding to Conserved Region 2, resulting from use of a degenerate oligonucleotide for initial PCR amplification of the 590 bp fragment in pT-F10-1 (Example 3).

After 2 rounds of 5′ RACE and one round of 3′ RACE, the DNA sequence of the entire putative Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase (EgD5) coding region was determined. As shown in FIG. 4, the EgD5 CDS was 1350 bp in length (SEQ ID NO:1) and encoded a polypeptide with 449 amino acids (SEQ ID NO:2), based on alignment of SEQ ID NOs:4, 6, 8 and 10. The results of BLASTP searches using the full length EgD5 gene as the query sequence showed that it shared 39% identity and 56% similarity with the Δ5 fatty acid desaturase of Phaeodactylum tricornutum (GenBank Accession No. AAL92562; SEQ ID NO:14), with an Expectation value of 1E-80. Additionally, the full length EgD5 gene shared 37% identity and 55% similarity with the Δ8-sphingolipid desaturase of Thalassiosira pseudonana (GenBank Accession No. AAX14502; SEQ ID NO:21), with an Expectation value of 3E-75.

Example 6 Generation of Construct pDMW367, Comprising EgD5

The present Example describes the generation of pDMW367, comprising a chimeric FBAIN::EgD5::Pex20-3′ gene (FIG. 5C). This was designed to integrate the chimeric gene into the genome of Yarrowia lipolytica and then study the function of the Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase in Yarrowia lipolytica.

Based on the full length cDNA of EgD5 (SEQ ID NO:1), oligonucleotides YL794 and YL797 (SEQ ID NOs:44 and 45, respectively) were used as primers to amplify the first portion of EgD5 (FIG. 5A). Primer YL794 contained a NcoI site and primer YL797 contained a HindIII site. Then, primers YL796 and YL795 (SEQ ID NOs:46 and 47, respectively) were used as primers to amplify the second portion of EgD5. Primer YL796 contained a HindIII site, while primer YL797 contained a NotI site. The PCR reactions, using primer pairs YL794/YL797 or YL796NYL795, with Euglena gracilis cDNA (Example 2) as template, were individually carried out in a 50 μl total volume comprising: PCR buffer (containing 10 mM KCl, 10 mM (NH₄)₂SO₄, 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.75), 2 mM MgSO₄, 0.1% Triton X-100), 100 μg/mL BSA (final concentration), 200 μM each deoxyribonucleotide triphosphate, 10 pmole of each primer and 1 μl of Pfu DNA polymerase (Stratagene, San Diego, Calif.). The thermocycler conditions were set for 35 cycles at 95° C. for 1 min, 56° C. for 30 sec and 72° C. for 1 min, followed by a final extension at 72° C. for 10 min.

The individual PCR products were purified using a Qiagen PCR purification kit. The PCR products from the reaction amplified with primers YL794NYL797 were digested with NcoI and HindIII, while the PCR products from the reaction amplified with primers YL796/YL795 were digested with HindIII and NotI. The NcoI/HindIII- and the HindIII/NotI-digested DNA fragments were purified following gel electrophoresis in 1% (w/v) agarose, and then directionally ligated with NcoI/NotI-digested pZUF17 (FIG. 5B; SEQ ID NO:22; comprising a synthetic Δ17 desaturase gene [“D17st”] derived from Saprolegnia diclina (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0196217 A1), codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia lipolytica (PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101757)). The product of this ligation was pDMW367 (FIG. 5C; SEQ ID NO:23), which thereby contained the following components:

TABLE 6 Components Of Plasmid pDMW367 (SEQ ID NO: 23) RE Sites And Nucleotides Within SEQ ID Description Of Fragment And Chimeric Gene NO: 23 Components EcoR I/BsiW I FBAIN::EgD5::Pex20, comprising: (7416-1671) FBAIN: Yarrowia lipolytica FBAIN promoter (PCT Publication No. WO 2005/049805; U.S. Pat. No. 7,202,356) EgD5: Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase (SEQ ID NO: 1 described herein; labeled as “Euglena D5DS” in Figure) Pex20: Pex20 terminator sequence of Yarrowia Pex20 gene (GenBank Accession No. AF054613) 2707-1827 ColE1 plasmid origin of replication 3637-2777 ampicillin-resistance gene (Amp^(R)) for selection in E. coli 4536-5840 Yarrowia autonomous replication sequence (ARS18; GenBank Accession No. A17608) 7373-5886 Yarrowia Ura 3 gene (GenBank Accession No. AJ306421) The term “FBAIN promoter” or “FBAIN promoter region” refers to the 5′ upstream untranslated region in front of the ‘ATG’ translation initiation codon of the Yarrowia lipolytica fructose-bisphosphate aldolase enzyme (E.C. 4.1.2.13) encoded by the fba1 gene and that is necessary for expression, plus a portion of 5′ coding region that has an intron of the fba1 gene.

Example 7 Generation of Yarrowia lipolytica Strain M4 to Produce About 8% DGLA of Total Lipids

The present Example describes the construction of strain M4, derived from Yarrowia lipolytica ATCC #20362, capable of producing 8% DGLA relative to the total lipids. This strain was engineered to express the Δ6 desaturase/Δ6 elongase pathway, via introduction of construct pKUNF12T6E (FIG. 6A; SEQ ID NO:24). This construct was generated to integrate four chimeric genes (comprising a Δ12 desaturase, a Δ6 desaturase and two C_(18/20) elongases) into the Ura3 loci of wild type Yarrowia strain ATCC #20362, to thereby enable production of DGLA. Thus, pKUNF12T6E contained the following components:

TABLE 7 Description of Plasmid pKUNF12T6E (SEQ ID NO: 24) RE Sites And Nucleotides Within SEQ ID Description Of Fragment And Chimeric Gene NO: 24 Components AscI/BsiWI 784 bp 5′ portion of Yarrowia Ura3 gene (GenBank (9420-8629) Accession No. AJ306421) SphI/PacI 516 bp 3′ portion of Yarrowia Ura3 gene (GenBank (12128-1)   Accession No. AJ306421) SwaI/BsiWI FBAIN::EL1S::Pex20, comprising: (6380-8629) FBAIN: Yarrowia lipolytica FBAIN promoter (PCT Publication No. WO 2005/049805; U.S. Pat. No. 7,202,356; labeled as “Fba1 + intron” in Figure) EL1S: codon-optimized elongase 1 gene (PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101753), derived from Mortierella alpina (GenBank Accession No. AX464731) Pex20: Pex20 terminator sequence from Yarrowia Pex20 gene (GenBank Accession No. AF054613) BglII/SwaI TEF::Δ6S::Lip1, comprising: (4221-6380) TEF: Yarrowia lipolytica TEF promoter (GenBank Accession No. AF054508) Δ6S: codon-optimized Δ6 desaturase gene (PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101753), derived from Mortierella alpina (GenBank Accession No. AF465281) Lip1: Lip1 terminator sequence from Yarrowia Lip1 gene (GenBank Accession No. Z50020) PmeI/ClaI FBA::F.Δ12::Lip2, comprising: (4207-1459) FBA: Yarrowia lipolytica FBA promoter (PCT Publication No. WO 2005/049805; U.S. Pat. No. 7,202,356; labeled as “FBA1” in Figure) F.Δ12: Fusarium moniliforme Δ12 desaturase gene (PCT Publication No. WO 2005/047485) Lip2: Lip2 terminator sequence from Yarrowia Lip2 gene (GenBank Accession No. AJ012632) ClaI/PacI TEF::EL2Syn::XPR2, comprising: (1459-1)   TEF: Yarrowia lipolytica TEF promoter (GenBank Accession No. AF054508) EL2Syn: codon-optimized elongase gene (SEQ ID NO: 25), derived from Thraustochytrium aureum (U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,145) XPR2: ~100 bp of the 3′ region of the Yarrowia Xpr gene (GenBank Accession No. M17741)

Plasmid pKUNF12T6E was digested with AscI/SphI, and then used for transformation of wild type Y. lipolytica ATCC #20362 according to the General Methods. The transformant cells were plated onto FOA selection media plates and maintained at 30° C. for 2 to 3 days. The FOA resistant colonies were picked and streaked onto MM and MMU selection plates. The colonies that could grow on MMU plates but not on MM plates were selected as Ura− strains. Single colonies of Ura− strains were then inoculated into liquid MMU at 30° C. and shaken at 250 rpm/min for 2 days. The cells were collected by centrifugation, lipids were extracted, and fatty acid methyl esters were prepared by trans-esterification, and subsequently analyzed with a Hewlett-Packard 6890 GC.

GC analyses showed the presence of DGLA in the transformants containing the 4 chimeric genes of pKUNF12T6E, but not in the wild type Yarrowia control strain. Most of the selected 32 Ura⁻ strains produced about 6% DGLA of total lipids. There were 2 strains (i.e., strains M4 and 13-8) that produced about 8% DGLA of total lipids.

Example 8 Functional Analysis of EgD5 Gene in Yarrowia lipolytica Strain M4

Plasmid pDMW367 (Example 6; comprising a chimeric FBAIN::EgD5::Pex20 gene was transformed into strain M4 (Example 7), as described in the General Methods. The transformants were selected on MM plates. After 2 days grown at 30° C., 3 transformants grown on the MM plates were picked and re-streaked onto fresh MM plates. Once grown, these strains were individually inoculated into 3 mL liquid MM at 30° C. and shaken at 250 rpm/min for 2 days. The cells were collected by centrifugation, lipids were extracted, and fatty acid methyl esters were prepared by trans-esterification, and subsequently analyzed with a Hewlett-Packard 6890 GC.

GC analyses showed that there were about 5.6% DGLA and 2.8% ARA of total lipids produced in all three transformants, wherein the conversion efficiency of DGLA to ARA in these three strains was determined to be about 33% (average). The conversion efficiency was measured according to the following formula: ([product]/[substrate+product])*100, where ‘product’ includes the immediate product and all products in the pathway derived from it. Thus, this experimental data demonstrated that the cloned Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase, described herein as SEQ ID NOs:1 and 2, efficiently desaturated DGLA to ARA.

Example 9 Synthesis of a Codon-Optimized Δ5 Desaturase Gene (“EqD5S”) for Expression in Yarrowia lipolytica

The codon usage of the Δ5 desaturase gene of Euglena gracilis (SEQ ID NOs:1 and 2; EgD5) was optimized for expression in Yarrowia lipolytica, in a manner similar to that described in PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101753 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,125,672. Specifically, a codon-optimized Δ5 desaturase gene (designated “EgD5S”, SEQ ID NO:3) was designed based on the coding sequence of the Δ5 desaturase gene of EgD5, according to the Yarrowia codon usage pattern (PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101753), the consensus sequence around the ‘ATG’ translation initiation codon, and the general rules of RNA stability (Guhaniyogi, G. and J. Brewer, Gene, 265(1-2):11-23 (2001)). In addition to modification of the translation initiation site, 196 bp of the 1350 bp coding region were modified (14.5%; FIG. 7) and 189 codons were optimized (42%). The GC content was reduced from 55.5% within the wild type gene (i.e., EgD5) to 54.4% within the synthetic gene (i.e., EgD5S). A NcoI site and NotI sites were incorporated around the translation initiation codon and after the stop codon of EgD5S, respectively. None of the modifications in the codon-optimized gene changed the amino acid sequence of the encoded protein (SEQ ID NO:2). The designed EgD5S gene (SEQ ID NO:3) was synthesized by GenScript Corporation (Piscataway, N.J.) and cloned into pUC57 (GenBank Accession No. Y14837) to generate pEgD5S (FIG. 6B; SEQ ID NO:48).

Example 10 Generation of Construct pDMW369, Comprising EqD5S

The present Example describes the construction of plasmid pDMW369 comprising a chimeric FBAIN::EgD5S::Pex20 gene. Plasmid pDMW369 (FIG. 6C; SEQ ID NO:49) was constructed by replacing the Nco I/NotI fragment of pZUF17 (FIG. 5B; SEQ ID NO:22) with the Nco I/Not I EgD5S fragment from pEgD5S (FIG. 6B; SEQ ID NO:48). The product of this ligation was pDMW369, which thereby contained the following components:

TABLE 8 Components Of Plasmid pDMW369 (SEQ ID NO: 49) RE Sites And Nucleotides Within SEQ ID Description Of Fragment And Chimeric Gene NO: 49 Components EcoR I/BsiW I FBAIN::EgD5S::Pex20, comprising: (6063-318)  FBAIN: Yarrowia lipolytica FBAIN promoter (PCT Publication No. WO 2005/049805; U.S. Pat. No. 7,202,356; labeled as “FBA1 + Intron” in Figure) EgD5S: codon-optimized Δ5 desaturase (SEQ ID NO: 3, described herein as EgD5S), derived from Euglena gracilis Pex20: Pex20 terminator sequence of Yarrowia Pex20 gene (GenBank Accession No. AF054613) 1354-474  ColE1 plasmid origin of replication 2284-1424 ampicillin-resistance gene (Amp^(R)) for selection in E. coli 3183-4476 Yarrowia autonomous replication sequence (ARS18; GenBank Accession No. A17608) 6020-4533 Yarrowia Ura 3 gene (GenBank Accession No. AJ306421)

Example 11 Expression of the Codon-Optimized Δ5 Desaturase (“EqD5S”) in Yarrowia lipolytica Strain M4

Plasmid pDMW369 (Example 10; comprising a chimeric FBAIN::EgD5S::Pex20 gene) was transformed into strain M4 (Example 7), as described in the General Methods. The transformants were selected on MM plates. After 2 days growth at 30° C., 3 transformants grown on the MM plates were picked and re-streaked onto fresh MM plates. Once grown, these strains were individually inoculated into 3 mL liquid MM at 30° C. and shaken at 250 rpm/min for 2 days. The cells were collected by centrifugation, lipids were extracted, and fatty acid methyl esters were prepared by trans-esterification, and subsequently analyzed with a Hewlett-Packard 6890 GC.

GC analyses showed that there were about 3.3% DGLA and 2.7% ARA of total lipids produced in all three transformants, wherein the conversion efficiency of DGLA to ARA in these three strains was determined to be about 45% (average; calculated as described in Example 8). Thus, this experimental data demonstrated that the synthetic Euglena gracilis Δ5 desaturase codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia lipolytica (EgD5S, as set forth in SEQ ID NO:3) is about 36% more efficient desaturating DGLA to ARA than the wild type EgD5 gene (SEQ ID NO:1).

Example 12 Isolation of a Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) Δ8 Desaturase

The present example describes the isolation of the Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) Δ8 desaturase utilized in Example 3 and in FIG. 3 (also described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/737,772 incorporated herein by reference) This required: synthesis of Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) cDNA; library construction and sequencing; identification of Δ8 desaturase homologs; and, cloning of a full-length Δ8 desaturase from genomic DNA.

Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) cDNA Synthesis, Library Construction and Sequencing

A cDNA library of Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) was synthesized as described in PCT Publication No. WO 2004/071467 (published Aug. 26, 2004). Briefly, frozen pellets of Pav459 were obtained from the Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton (CCMP, West Boothbay Harbor, Me.). These pellets were crushed in liquid nitrogen and total RNA was extracted from Pav459 by using the Qiagen RNeasy® Maxi Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, Calif.), per the manufacturer's instructions. From this total RNA, mRNA was isolated using oligo dT cellulose resin, which was then used for the construction of a cDNA library using the pSport1 vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.). The cDNA thus produced was directionally cloned (5′ SalI/3′ NotI) into pSport1 vector. The Pav459 library contained approximately 6.1×10⁵ clones per mL, each with an average insert size of approximately 1200 bp. The Pavlova lutheri library was named eps1c.

For sequencing, clones first were recovered from archived glycerol cultures grown/frozen in 384-well freezing media plates, and inoculated with an automatic QPix® colony picker (Genetix) in 96-well deep-well plates containing LB+100 mg/mL ampicillin. After growing 20 hrs at 37° C., cells were pelleted by centrifugation and stored at −20° C. Plasmids then were isolated on an Eppendorf 5Prime robot, using a modified 96-well format alkaline lysis miniprep method (Eppendorf PerfectPrep®). Briefly, a filter and vacuum manifold was used to facilitate removal of cellular debris after acetate precipitation. Plasmid DNA was then bound on a second filter plate directly from the filtrate, washed, dried and eluted.

Plasmids were end-sequenced in 384-well plates, using vector-primed T7 primer (SEQ ID NO:50) and the ABI BigDye version 3 Prism sequencing kit. For the sequencing reaction, 100-200 ng of template and 6.4 pmoL of primer were used, and the following reaction conditions were repeated 25 times: 96° C. for 10 sec, 50° C. for 5 sec and 60° C. for 4 min. After ethanol-based cleanup, cycle sequencing reaction products were resolved and detected on Perkin-Elmer ABI 3700 automated sequencers.

Identification of Δ8 Desaturase Enzyme Homologs from Pavlova lutheri cDNA Library eps1c

cDNA clones encoding Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase homologs (hereby called Δ8 desaturases) were identified by conducting BLAST searches for similarity to sequences contained in the BLAST “nr” database (as described in Example 3). The P-value (probability) of observing a match of a cDNA sequence to a sequence contained in the searched databases merely by chance as calculated by BLAST are reported herein as “pLog” values, which represent the negative of the logarithm of the reported P-value. Accordingly, the greater the pLog value, the greater the likelihood that the cDNA sequence and the BLAST “hit” represent homologous proteins.

The BLASTX search using the nucleotide sequence from clone eps1c.pk002.f22 revealed similarity of the protein encoded by the cDNA to the Δ6 desaturase from Rhizopus stolonifer (SEQ ID NO:51) (NCBI Accession No. AAX22052 (GI 60499699), locus AAX22052, CDS AY795076; Lu et al., unpublished). The sequence of a portion of the cDNA insert from clone eps1c.pk002.f22 is shown in SEQ ID NO:52 (5′ end of cDNA insert). Subsequently, the full insert sequence (eps1c.pk002.f22:fis) was obtained and is shown in SEQ ID NO:53. Sequence for the deduced amino acid sequence (from nucleotide 1 of SEQ ID NO:53 to the first stop codon at nucleotide 864 of SEQ ID NO:53) is shown in SEQ ID NO:54. Full insert sequencing was carried out using a modified transposition protocol. Clones identified for full insert sequencing were recovered from archived glycerol stocks as single colonies, and plasmid DNA was isolated via alkaline lysis. Plasmid templates were transposed via the Template Generation System (TGS II) transposition kit (Finnzymes Oy, Espoo, Finland), following the manufacturer's protocol. The transposed DNA was transformed into EH10B electro-competent cells (Edge BioSystems, Gaithersburg, Md.) via electroporation. Multiple transformants were randomly selected from each transposition reaction, plasmid DNA was prepared, and templates were sequenced as above (ABI BigDye v3.1) outward from the transposition event site, utilizing unique primers SeqE (SEQ ID NO:55) and SeqW (SEQ ID NO:56).

Sequence data was collected (ABI Prism Collections software) and assembled using the Phrap sequence assembly program (P. Green, University of Washington, Seattle). Assemblies were viewed by the Consed sequence editor (D. Gordon, University of Washington, Seattle) for final editing.

The amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:54 was evaluated by BLASTP, yielding a pLog value of 19.52 (E value of 3e-20) versus the Δ6 desaturase from Mortierella alpina (NCBI Accession No. BAC82361 (GI 34221934), locus BAC82361, CDS AB070557; Sakuradani and Shimizu, Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 67:704-711 (2003)). Based on the results from the BLASTP comparison to the Mortierella alpina and other fatty acid desaturases, the Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase was not full length and was lacking sequence at the 5′ end.

Cloning A Full-Length Δ8 Desaturase from Pavlova lutheri Genomic DNA

Genomic DNA was isolated from Pavlova lutheri (CCMP459) using the Qiagen DNeasy® Plant Maxi Prep Kit according to the manufacturer's protocol. Using 1 maxi column per 1 gm of frozen cell pellet, a total of 122 μg of genomic DNA was isolated from 4 gm of Pavlova lutheri culture. The final concentration of genomic DNA was 22.8 ng/μL. GenomeWalker libraries were synthesized using the Universal GenomeWalker™ kit (BD Biosciences Clonetech, Palo Alto, Calif.) following the manufacturer's protocol (Prot # PT3042-1, version PRO3300). Briefly, four restriction digests were set up as per the protocol using 300 ng of genomic DNA per reaction. After phenol clean up, pellets were dissolved in 4 μL of water and adapters were ligated as per the protocol.

For the primary PCR, the Advantage®-GC Genomic PCR kit (BD Biosciences Clonetech) was used following the manufacturer's protocol (Prot # PT3090-1, version PR1X433). For each restriction digest, 1 μL of library was combined with 22.8 μL of PCR grade water, 10 μL of 5×GC Genomic PCR Reaction Buffer, 2.2 μL of 25 mM Mg(CH₃CO₂)₂, 10 μL of GC-Melt (5 M), 1 μL of 50× dNTP mix (10 mM each), 1 μL of Advantage-GC Genomic Pol. Mix (50×), 1 μL of Universal GenomeWalker™ primer AP1 (10 μM, SEQ ID NO:57) and 1 μL of GSP PvDES (10 μM, SEQ ID NO:58). After denaturation at 95° C., the following reaction conditions were repeated 35 times: 94° C. for 30 sec, 68° C. for 6 min. After these reaction conditions, an additional extension at 68° C. was carried out for 6 min followed by cooling to 15° C. until removed.

The primary PCR reaction for each library was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis and DNA bands with molecular weights around 6 kB, 3.5 kB, 2.5 kB and 1.2 kB were observed. DNA bands for each library were purified using the Zymoclean™ Gel DNA Recovery Kit (Zymo Research, Orange, Calif.) following the manufacturer's protocol. The resulting DNA was cloned into the PGEM®-T Easy Vector (Promega) following the manufacturer's protocol and inserts were sequenced using the T7 (SEQ ID NO:50) and M13-28Rev (SEQ ID NO:59) primers as described above. Additional sequence was then obtained using a gene-specific sequencing primer PavDES seq (SEQ ID NO:60) that was derived from the newly acquired sequence data. The full 5′ end sequence obtained by genome walking is shown in SEQ ID NO:61. The sequence of the overlapping regions of the genomic sequence (SEQ ID NO:61) and the fully sequenced EST eps1c.pk002.f22:fis (SEQ ID NO:53) were aligned using Sequencher™ (Version 4.2, Gene Codes Corporation, Ann Arbor, Mich.) using the Large Gap assembly algorithm. Interestingly, the comparison showed that the EST that was originally sequenced (SEQ ID NO:53) was lacking 459 bp when compared to the genomic sequence (SEQ ID NO:61). This missing sequence in the EST appeared to be a deletion rather than an intron as no clear intron splice sites were identified in the genomic DNA at the 5′ end of the gene. The genomic sequence for the 5′ end (SEQ ID NO:61) was combined with the 3′ end of the EST sequence (SEQ ID NO:53) to yield SEQ ID NO:62. Using EditSeq™ 6.1 sequence analysis software (DNASTAR Inc., Madison, Wis.), an ORF was identified (SEQ ID NO:17). The amino acid sequence coded for by SEQ ID NO:17 is shown in SEQ ID NO:18.

The amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:18 was evaluated by BLASTP, yielding a pLog value of 35.10 (E value of 8e-36) versus the Δ6 desaturase from Rhizopus stolonifer (SEQ ID NO:63) (NCBI Accession No. ABB96724 (GI 83027409), locus ABB96724, CDS DQ291156; Zhang et al., unpublished). Furthermore, the Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase is 78.0% identical to the Pavlova salina Δ8 desaturase sequence (SEQ ID NO:64) disclosed in PCT Publication No. WO 2005/103253 (published Apr. 22, 2005) using the Jotun Hein method. Sequence percent identity calculations performed by the Jotun Hein method (Hein, J. J., Meth. Enz., 183:626-645 (1990)) were done using the MegAlign™ v6.1 program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc., Madison, Wis.) with the default parameters for pairwise alignment (KTUPLE=2). The Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase is 76.4% identical to the Pavlova salina Δ8 desaturase sequence using the Clustal V method. Sequence percent identity calculations performed by the Clustal V method (Higgins, D. G. and Sharp, P. M., Comput. Appl. Biosci,. 5:151-153 (1989); Higgins et al., Comput. Appl. Biosci., 8:189-191 (1992)) were done using the MegAlign™ v6.1 program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc.) with the default parameters for pairwise alignment (KTUPLE=1, GAP PENALTY=3, WINDOW=5, DIAGONALS SAVED=5 and GAP LENGTH PENALTY=10). BLAST scores and probabilities indicate that the fragment of SEQ ID NO:17 encodes an entire Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show a Clustal V alignment (with default parameters) of SEQ ID NO:18 (the amino acid sequence of the Pavlova lutheri Δ8 desaturase), SEQ ID NO:64 (the amino acid sequence of Pavlova salina Δ8 desaturase sequence, supra), SEQ ID NO:16 (the amino acid sequence of Euglena gracilis Δ8 desaturase sequence disclosed as SEQ ID NO:2 in PCT Publication No. WO 2006/012325; published Feb. 2, 2006), SEQ ID NO:63 (the amino acid sequence for the Rhizopus stolonifer Δ6 fatty acid desaturase (NCBI Accession No. ABB96724, supra)) and SEQ ID NO:51 (the amino acid sequence for the Rhizopus stolonifer Δ6 fatty acid desaturase (NCBI Accession No. AAX22052, supra)). The results of the Clustal V alignment show that SEQ ID NO:18 is 76.4%, 22.6%, 22.2% and 22.2% identical to SEQ ID NO:64, SEQ ID NO:16, SEQ ID NO:63 and SEQ ID NO:51, respectively.

Example 13 Comparing the Substrate Specificity of the Mortierella alpina Δ5 Desaturase (MaD5) with the Euglena gracilis Δ5 Desaturase (EgD5) in Yarrowia lipolytica

The present Example describes comparison of the substrate specificity of a Mortierella alpina Δ5 desaturase (MaD5; SEQ ID NOs:67 and 68), which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,183 and PCT Publications No. WO 2004/071467 and No. WO 2005/047479) to that of EgD5 (SEQ ID NO:2) in Yarrowia lipolytica.

This work included the following steps: (1) construction of Yarrowia expression vector pY98 comprising MaD5; (2) transformation of pY98 and pDMW367 into Yarrowia strain Y2224; and, 3.) comparison of lipid profiles within transformant organisms comprising pY98 or pDMW367 after feeding fatty acid substrates.

Construction of Yarrowia Expression Vector pY98, Comprising MaD5

Plasmid pY5-22 (SEQ ID NO:69) is a shuttle plasmid that can replicate both in E. coli and Yarrowia lipolytica, containing the following: a Yarrowia autonomous replication sequence (ARS18; GenBank Accession No. M91600); a CoIE1 plasmid origin of replication; an ampicillin-resistance gene (Amp^(R)) for selection in E. coli; a Yarrowia URΔ3 gene (GenBank Accession No. AJ306421) for selection in Yarrowia; and, a chimeric TEF::NcoI/NotI::XPR cassette, wherein “XPR” was ˜100 bp of the 3′ region of the Yarrowia Xpr gene (GenBank Accession No. M17741). Although the construction of plasmid pY5-22 is not described herein in detail, it was derived from pY5 (previously described in PCT Publication No. WO 2004/101757).

Plasmid pY5-22GPD (SEQ ID NO:70) was created from pY5-22 (SEQ ID NO:69), by replacing the TEF promoter with the Yarrowia lipolytica GPD promoter (SEQ ID NO:71) using techniques well known to one skilled in the art. The Yarrowia “GPD promoter” refers to the 5′ upstream untranslated region in front of the ‘ATG’ translation initiation codon of a protein encoded by the Yarrowia lipolytica glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) gene and that is necessary for expression (PCT Publication No. WO 2005/003310). More specifically, the Yarrowia lipolytica GPD promoter was amplified from plasmid pYZDE2-S (SEQ ID NO:72; which was previously described in U.S. Patent Application No. 60/795,810 (the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference)) using oligonucleotides GPDsense (SEQ ID NO:73) and GPDantisense (SEQ ID NO:74). The resulting DNA fragment was digested with SalI/NotI and cloned into the SalI/NotI fragment of pY5-22 (SEQ ID NO:69), thus replacing the TEF promoter and NcoI/NotI site with the GPD promoter and a unique NotI site, and thereby producing pY5-22GPD (SEQ ID NO:70).

The Mortierella alpina Δ5 desaturase gene (SEQ ID NO:67) was released from pKR136 (SEQ ID NO:75; which was previously described in PCT Publication No. WO 2004/071467 (the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference)) by digestion with NotI and cloned into the NotI site of pY5-22GPD to produce pY98 (SEQ ID NO:76; FIG. 9).

Transformation of FY98 (Comprising MaD5) and pDMW367 (Comprising EgD5) into Yarrowia Strain Y2224 and Comparison of Lipid Profiles

Strain Y2224 was isolated in the following manner: Yarrowia lipolytica ATCC #20362 cells from a YPD agar plate (1% yeast extract, 2% bactopeptone, 2% glucose, 2% agar) were streaked onto a MM plate (75 mg/L each of uracil and uridine, 6.7 g/L YNB with ammonia sulfate, without amino acid, and 20 g/L glucose) containing 250 mg/L 5-FOA (Zymo Research). Plates were incubated at 28° C. and four of the resulting colonies were patched separately onto MM plates containing 200 mg/mL 5-FOA and MM plates lacking uracil and uridine to confirm uracil Ura3 auxotrophy.

Strain Y2224 was transformed with pY98 (SEQ ID NO:76, FIG. 9) and pDMW367 (SEQ ID NO:23; FIG. 5C; Example 6) as described in the General Methods.

Single colonies of transformant Yarrowia lipolytica containing pY98 (SEQ ID NO:76) or pDMW367 (SEQ ID NO:23) were grown in 3 mL MM lacking uracil supplemented with 0.2% tergitol at 30 ° C. for 1 day. After this, 0.1 mL was transferred to 3 mL of the same medium supplemented with either EDA, ETrA, DGLA, ETA or no fatty acid. These were incubated for 16 h at 30° C., 250 rpm and then pellets were obtained by centrifugation. Cells were washed once with water, pelleted by centrifugation and air dried. Pellets were transesterified (Roughan, G. and Nishida, I., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 276(1):38-46 (1990)) with 500 μL of 1% sodium methoxide for 30 min at 50° C. after which 500 μL of 1M NaCl and 100 μL of heptane were added. After thorough mixing and centrifugation, fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were analyzed by GC.

FAMEs (5 μL injected from hexane layer) were separated and quantified using a Hewlett-Packard 6890 Gas Chromatograph fitted with an Omegawax 320 fused silica capillary column (Catalog No. 24152, Supelco Inc.). The oven temperature was programmed to hold at 220° C. for 2.6 min, increase to 240° C. at 20° C./min and then hold for an additional 2.4 min. Carrier gas was supplied by a Whatman hydrogen generator. Retention times were compared to those for methyl esters of standards commercially available (Nu-Chek Prep, Inc.).

The fatty acid profiles for Yarrowia lipolytica expressing pY98 (SEQ ID NO:76) or pDMW367 (SEQ ID NO:23) and fed various substrates are shown in FIG. 10A. In FIG. 10A shading indicates the substrates fed and products produced; fatty acids are identified as 16:0 (palmitate), 16:1, 18:0 (stearic acid), 18:1 (oleic acid), LA, GLA, ALA, STA, EDA, SCI (sciadonic acid or cis-5,11,14-eicosatrienoic acid; 20:3 ω-6), DGLA, ARA, ETrA, JUP (juniperonic acid or cis-5,11,14,17-eicosatrienoic acid; 20:4 ω-3), ETA and EPA. Fatty acid compositions were expressed as the weight percent (wt. %) of total fatty acids.

Percent Δ5 desaturation (“% delta-5 desat”) of EgD5 and MaD5 for each substrate is shown in FIG. 10B and was calculated by dividing the wt. % for product (either SCI, JUP, ARA or EPA) by the sum of the wt. % for the substrate and product (either EDA and SCI, ETrA and JUP, DGLA and ARA, or ETA and EPA, respectively) and multiplying by 100 to express as a %, depending on which substrate was fed.

The activities of EgD5 and MaD5 are compared using the ratio of the percent Δ5 desaturation (“Ratio Desat Eg/Ma”) in FIG. 10B and are calculated by dividing the percent Δ5 desaturation for EgD5 on a particular substrate by the percent Δ5 desaturation for MaD5 on the same substrate.

The substrate specificity of EgD5 and MaD5 for the correct ω-6 fatty acid substrate (i.e., DGLA) versus the by-product fatty acid (i.e., SCI) or the correct ω-3 fatty acid substrate (i.e., ETA) versus the by-product fatty acid (i.e., JUP) is also shown in FIG. 10B. Specifically, the substrate specificity (“Ratio Prod/By-Prod”) for ω-6 substrates was calculated by dividing the percent Δ5 desaturation (% delta-5 desat) for DGLA by the percent Δ5 desaturation (% delta-5 desat) for EDA and is shown on the same lines as the results for DGLA. The substrate specificity (“Ratio Prod/By-Prod”) for ω-3 substrates was calculated by dividing the percent Δ5 desaturation (% delta-5 desat) for ETA by the percent Δ5 desaturation (% delta-5 desat) for ETrA and is shown on the same lines as the results for ETA. Furthermore, the ratio of substrate specificity (“Ratio Prod/By-Prod Eg/Ma”) for ω-6 substrates was determined by dividing the substrate specificity for EgD5 on the ω-6 substrates (i.e., DGLA/EDA) by that for MaD5. The ratio of substrate specificity (“Ratio Prod/By-Prod Eg/Ma”) for ω-3 substrates was calculated by dividing the substrate specificity for EgD5 on the ω-3 substrates (i.e., ETA/ETrA) by that for MaD5.

The preference of EgD5 and MaD5 for ω-6 or ω-3 substrates is compared using the ratio of the percent Δ5 desaturation (“Ratio n-6/n-3”) in FIG. 10B and is calculated by dividing the percent Δ5 desaturation for EgD5 and MaD5 on a particular ω-6 substrate (either DGLA or EDA) by the percent Δ5 desaturation on the corresponding ω-3 substrate (either ETA or ETrA, respectively).

From the results in FIG. 10B, it is clear that EgD5 is approximately 2.6- to 2.9-fold more active in Yarrowia than MaD5 when DGLA, EDA and ETA are used as substrates. The exception is the activity for ETrA which is approximately the same for both enzymes. The substrate specificity of EgD5 and MaD5 for the correct ω-6 substrate (i.e., DGLA versus EDA) is approximately the same in Yarrowia but there is an approximate 2.5-fold preference of EgD5 for ETA (versus ETrA) over MaD5. The high activity and preferred substrate specificity for ETA over ETrA of EgD5 may be useful in the production of long-chain PUFAs. EgD5 also has a preference for ω-6 substrates (i.e., EDA and DGLA) over the ω-3 substrates (i.e., ETrA and ETA), respectively. 

1. An isolated nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of: (a) an isolated nucleotide sequence encoding a Δ5 desaturase enzyme as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2; (b) an isolated nucleotide sequence that hybridizes with (a) under the following hybridization conditions: 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, 65° C. and washed with 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS, wherein said nucleotide sequence encodes a delta-5 desaturase followed by 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS; and, (c) an isolated nucleotide sequence that is completely complementary to (a) or (b).
 2. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 1, wherein at least 189 codons are codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia.
 3. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 selected from the group of SEQ ID NOs:1 and
 3. 4. An isolated nucleic acid fragment of claim 1 isolated from Euglena gracilis.
 5. An isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a first nucleotide sequence encoding a Δ5 desaturase enzyme of at least 449 amino acids that has at least 95% identity based on BLASTP algorithms when compared to a polypeptide having the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2; or a second nucleotide sequence comprising the complement of the first nucleotide sequence.
 6. A chimeric gene comprising the isolated nucleic acid molecule of any one of claims 1-5 operably linked to at least one regulatory sequence.
 7. A transformed Yarrowia sp. comprising the isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim
 1. 8. The transformed Yarrowia sp. of claim 7 selected from the group consisting of Yarrowia lipolytica ATCC #20362, Yarrowia lipolytica ATCC #8862, Yarrowia lipolytica ATCC #18944, Yarrowia lipolytica ATCC #76982 and Yarrowia lipolytica LGAM S(7)1.
 9. A method for the production of arachidonic acid comprising: a) providing a host cell comprising: (i) an isolated nucleotide molecule encoding a Δ5 desaturase polypeptide having at least 95% identity when compared to a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2, based on BLASTP algorithms; and, (ii) a source of dihomo-γ-linolenic acid; b) growing the host cell of step (a) under conditions wherein the nucleic acid fragment encoding the Δ5 desaturase polypeptide is expressed and the dihomo-γ-linolenic acid is converted to arachidonic acid; and, c) optionally recovering the arachidonic acid of step (b).
 10. A method for the production of eicosapentaenoic acid comprising: a) providing a host cell comprising: (i) an isolated nucleotide molecule encoding a Δ5 desaturase polypeptide having at least 95% identity when compared to a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2, based on BLASTP algorithms; and, (ii) a source of eicosatetraenoic acid; b) growing the host cell of step (a) under conditions wherein the nucleic acid fragment encoding the Δ5 desaturase polypeptide is expressed and the eicosatetraenoic acid is converted to eicosapentaenoic acid; and, c) optionally recovering the eicosapentaenoic acid of step (b).
 11. A method according to either of claims 9 or 10 wherein the isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding the Δ5 desaturase polypeptide is set forth in SEQ ID NO:2, wherein at least 189 codons are codon-optimized for expression in Yarrowia.
 12. A method according to either of claims 9 or 10 wherein the isolated nucleic acid molecule encodes a Δ5 desaturase polypeptide having the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2.
 13. A method according to either of claims 9 or 10 wherein: a) the isolated nucleic acid molecule has the nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs:1 and SEQ ID NO:3; and, b) the host cell is Yarrowia lipolytica.
 14. A method according to either of claims 9 or 10, wherein the host cell is selected from the group consisting of: algae, bacteria, yeast, euglenoids and fungi.
 15. A method according to claim 14 wherein the host cell is a fungus selected from the group consisting of: Thraustochytrium, Schizochytrium and Mortierella.
 16. A method according to claim 14 wherein the yeast is an oleaginous yeast.
 17. A method according to claim 16 wherein the oleaginous yeast is selected from the group consisting of: Yarrowia, Candida, Rhodotorula, Rhodosporidium, Cryptococcus, Trichosporon and Lipomyces. 